House of the Brave
by cynical owl
Summary: You don't stop being a soldier because you got wounded in battle. Not every battle is physical, wounds aren't necessarily external, and soldiers do whatever it takes to get through. Even when they accidentally time travel.
1. Chapter 1: Arrival

She groaned and rolled over. Or rather, she tried to roll over. Her sides felt like they had been crushed and ground to powder. Gingerly, she forced her aching arm to touch her ribs. The lightest touch had her gasping. Definitely broken.

As she grew more conscious and aware of her surroundings, she also became more aware of the immense pain she was in. Wincing with every motion, she struggled to find her wand. Surely it hadn't landed too far from her. Her fingers brushed against the thick base of what could be a wand. She stretched as far as she could, biting her bottom lip so as to not make a sound. Finally, she was able to reach it. She slowly drew her arm back down to her side.

Ever since she realized there would be a war, she had memorized almost every book on magical healing. She had bothered the school nurse by logically pleading her case every chance she had until the woman finally gave in and taught her the complicated spells and potions that could not be found in any library.

She knew she would need the knowledge, knew she would need the experience. She was grateful now that she had pursued both and worked as hard as she had. She raised her hand and performed a few slight wrist movements.

The diagnostics test showed her every single spot that was injured. Ribs, broken. Left leg, shattered from the knee down. Left arm, severely burned. Right hip, cracked. Internal bleeding. Concussion. Smashed cheekbones and a wrenched jaw. Spine misaligned. And a grand total of one hundred sixty-three cuts and gashes of varying depths and lengths.

She quickly repaired her ribs and internal organs, those being the most serious. Next she cast a spell to alleviate some of the intense pain that her battle rattled body was beginning to register. As her insides literally knit themselves back together, she looked around once more.

Woods. Tall, thick, moss-covered trees surrounded her. Bits of sunshine speckled through the dense foliage above her. Giant thorn bushes tangled themselves up between the trees. Vines of some strange kind dangled from the tree tops. Ferns grew everywhere. From where she lay on the dark ground, there didn't seem to be a pathway of any kind. The scene before her was picturesque. Beautiful even.

Something felt off though. Her head pounding so sharply, and her body's lack of responses, made it very difficult for her to pinpoint what was bothering her.

She sighed in relief as she could now breathe without having to fight for every breath. Slowly, she dragged the tip of her wand over several of the larger cuts. The longest one started at her left collar bone and stretched all the way down her abdomen to her right hip and down her leg to her calf. Once she wasn't in danger of bleeding to death, she healed her concussion. She knew she would need a few days in bed even with the magical recovery.

She repaired her arm, hip, face, and spine with ease. She was going to be sore for a while, but luckily so far there would be no lasting damage. She eyed her leg. She would definitely be needing the bone regrowth potion if she ever wanted to walk normally again.

Her injuries tended to, she felt her adrenalin aided strength beginning to drain from her. She cast a protection shield around her and set wards to warn her if anyone approached. Finally, she allowed her eyes to droop shut. Just as she was about to slip into blessed unconsciousness, she realized what felt odd about the forest.

The woods were completely silent.

. . . .

When she awoke, the sun had set and a bone-chilling cold had set in. Silently she cast a warming charm around herself. She listened closely. The woods were silent, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. It was as though the entire forest was still. Nothing moved.

She shrugged. As long as it was still and quiet, she knew no one was trying to kill her. She hugged her knee to her chest and dozed. In the morning, she would look for clues to what happened to her.

. . . .

"Oh, Merlin, Hermione, wake up, love. Please wake up. Hermione. Open your eyes."

Unexpectedly, when she woke once more, it was to someone's hand shaking her gently. Blearily, she cracked her exhausted eyes open. A tanned, freckled arm was reaching towards her shoulders. Her unfocused gaze followed the arm up to a worried mess of bright golden red hair. Slowly her eyes came into focus. She reached up and brushed the hair away from the face looming above her.

"Fred," she murmured. "Please be real."

"Hermione!" Fred grabbed her up into a giant hug. "Thank Merlin you're alive."

She tiredly leaned into him, relief coursing through her. "Do you know what happened or where we are?"

Fred released her and straightened up. He sat back on his heels and looked around. "We were in the middle of fighting a group of Death Eaters when Harry killed Voldemort. They were running away when one of them threw some kind of curse at me. You shoved me out of the way and the curse hit the wall behind us. It collapsed on us, and that's all I remember." He looked back to her. "I have no idea where we are or how we got here though." His eyes narrowed. "You okay?"

She gave a slight, dry laugh. She would never be okay. She couldn't tell him that though. "I had some pretty serious wounds, but I'm mostly okay now. My left leg is going to be a problem until I can get a few potions in me." She glanced over him. She could see several new scars, still pink from healing. Other than that he appeared to be in one piece. "Are you alright?"

He snorted. "Mostly surface wounds. I had a lovely set of cracked ribs though. Give me a few days, and I'll be fine." Hermione believed him. If it had been anyone other than him, she would have forced him let her cast her spells to see the damage done.

But Fred Weasley did not lie to Hermione Granger.

Hermione crossed her legs and played with a fallen fern as she thought. She could vaguely recall shoving Fred. She looked up and around her. A thought hit her. "Fred," she said slowly. He met her eyes curiously. "Does none of this look familiar to you? Because it looks awfully familiar to me."

He surveyed the woods once more. "Hermione, I've never seen these woods before in my life," he told her cautiously.

"Help me stand," she said. To his eye, she seemed to have come to some sort of understanding. Knowing her like he did, he knew she wouldn't say anything until she was certain. He bent down and slung her left arm around his shoulders as he wrapped an arm around her waist. It took her a moment to reorient herself as all the blood rushed to her head.

"Where are we going?" he asked. She pointed to their left.

"If I'm right," she said as they slowly made their way up towards a small hilled clearing, "we should be able to get our bearings from there."

Neither said anything else as they reached the top of the hill. Fred stared out. All he could see were more trees. "Hermione…" he started, but she was looking behind them.

"Turn around, Fred."

Hogwarts stood in the distance. Not how he last saw it, all broken and dark and gray. No, this was Hogwarts as it was meant to be. This was the school he remembered. The first sun streaks of the day glinting off the giant windows of the towers. The very stones of the building inviting one in.

He could almost hear the ghosts of laughter and happiness radiating from it. He could almost see George and Lee waiting for him by the secret passage ways. He could almost picture Hermione, Harry and Ron arguing with Malfoy. He could almost taste the pumpkin juice. He could almost feel the air rushing around him as he zoomed around the Quidditch pitch.

He felt at peace. This was how Hogwarts was supposed to look. Whole. Complete. Not a battlefield. Not a prison for students. Not a giant cemetery for friends and family and friends that were closer than family.

Eyes wide, he whispered to Harper. "How…."

He couldn't even finish his sentence.

"I don't know," she said as she shrugged. She too kept her eyes locked on the school. She took a deep breath. "We need to go there though. I can feel it."

If Hermione was trusting in a feeling, Fred would too. "Do you feel like you can apparate without splinching yourself?"

"No. You're going to have to apparate us."

"Hold tight." He pulled her close and turned.

. . . .

Fred had been aiming for the main entrance but the wounds he had suffered caused him to miscalculate. They landed right in the middle of the Great Hall.

There appeared to be the beginnings of a feast going on. Hermione and Fred froze as they glanced around at the sudden silence that met their arrival. The first thing they noticed was the sheer amount of students. The tables were packed. They exchanged an alarmed look as they both realized they didn't know any of the students present.

"Excuse me," said a rather happy voice behind them. "I'm Headmaster Dumbledore. Are you alright?" They turned to see an older wizard with waist-length gray beard, bright, sharp eyes, and a bizarre party hat on his head. But that was impossible. Dumbledore was killed a year ago.

"That's impossible," Fred said flatly. Dumbledore watched him for a moment and understanding dawned on him. "You're supposed to be dead," he whispered.

Hermione went completely white and fainted.

Waking up in a strange forest, healing himself, finding Hermione, seeing Hogwarts whole again, apparating, and discovering his beloved principal alive was just too much strain on poor Fred's nerves. He caught Hermione just as he himself fainted. He was grateful when the darkness closed in on him.

In the dark, there were no surprises.

. . . .

The four boys had been anticipating the Hogwarts welcome feast since they settled in their train compartment. They had not, however, anticipated the excitement the feast this year would bring.

Outside of a few well executed pranks here and there and Quidditch, their Hogwarts years had been peaceful. And if they were being honest, rather boring. They were entering their seventh year and the most exciting thing they had going on was trying to get the Head Girl to notice one of them.

They were in the midst of plotting Operation Get the Girl, when out of nowhere two battered people appeared. A boy who looked a few years older than them and a girl they guessed was their age. It was hard to tell though. Their faces were covered in grime, and their clothes had all manner of brush and dirt on them. Upon closer inspection, their clothes were also shredded - and was that blood?

They looked as though they had travelled through hell and back. Both of them had obviously been recently healed, and the girl looked as though she could use a few good potions. Despite how frail and worn and broken they appeared, they held their wands ready and their eyes were constantly on guard. They held themselves as if they were prepared to fight at a moment's notice.

Neither paid any attention to the fierce whispers circulating the hall. When the headmaster approached them and spoke quietly to them, their faces went dead white. And then they just collapsed. Luckily the professor was quick with his spellwork and was able to get out a cushioning charm before they hit the hard stone floor.

Dumbledore called for Madame Pomfrey and the two of them hurried their unconscious and unannounced guests to the infirmary.

As soon as they were gone, the four boys' heads were bent together forming plans to sneak into the infirmary later that night.


	2. Chapter 2: What Happened?

Hermione awoke to a heated whispered conversation above her head. She kept her eyes closed and pretended to be asleep. She caught a few names here and there. Well, she thought they were names. They were very odd and might have been nicknames. Moony? Padfoot?

Her eyes went wide and she sat up straight in bed, scaring the boys half to death. She stared at each of them for a good thirty seconds.

There were three of them. The one immediately to her left was rather lanky looking. His eyes were as brown as his hair. He was giving her a rather concerned look, though she couldn't tell whether he was concerned about her specifically or if he was concerned she woke up and caught them. The other two boys sat casually at the foot of her bed. They both had dark, dark hair. One wore glasses and had hair sticking out all over the place. Curiosity radiated off him in waves. The other boy had long hair that he clearly took pride in. Everything about him screamed player.

Finally, she said hoarsely, "Where is the boy I came here with?"

The three boys exchanged a look. The messy haired one said, "He's in the bed across the hall. What's your name?" He was practically bouncing from his place on her bed.

She didn't bother to answer. She just threw off the covers and swung her legs to the side. She was stopped by the brown haired boy's hands on her knees. Her head came up in defiance. "Remove your hands," she said coolly. He was positive she would use violence if pushed the wrong way, so he slowly backed up.

"I think you should rest some more before you get up and start gallivanting around," said the boy with the pretty hair. She absently noted that had she been any other girl, she would have been distracted from finding Fred fairly quickly by his handsome features.

But she was not any other girl. She was Hermione Granger. And Lockhart aside, Hermione Granger did not get distracted by pretty boys. She had been on the run for more than three years. She had fought in a war. Pretty boys didn't really mean much to her any more.

She pushed herself to her feet and ignored the comment. Slowly, she shuffled and hobbled her way to the door. Just as she was about to reach it, she was suddenly floating as the messy haired boy picked her up and carried her back to her bed. Unfortunately for Hermione and fortunately for the boy, she was still weak from the fighting and the healing. She twisted and struggled and made him work to get her back though.

Once she was firmly held down, the brown boy flicked his wand and ropes came out and bound her to the bed. "You need rest," the pretty boy said. She glared at them as she fought the panic that was rising within her. She fought the anxiety off doubly hard when she realized they had her wand.

When she opened her mouth, the boys thought they were about to be scolded. She seemed like the scolding type. She didn't even address them, however. In fact, she ignored them completely as she screamed, "FRED!" as loudly as she could.

A giant thump could be heard two seconds before a door slammed open. In burst Fred, wand drawn. His eyes swept the room and assessed the situation. Hermione, roped to the bed. Three boys who obviously put her there and who also had their wands out. His instincts took over and he sent stunning spells at all of them as he moved towards Hermione.

Madame Pomfrey stormed in, demanding to know what was going on in her hospital wing. Fred, still shielding Hermione, tensed and immediately cast a shield spell while hurriedly whispering to the girl. The nurse, seeing that the four boys were out cold, kept her hands where Fred could see them.

Interrupting their whispered conversation, Madame Pomfrey said quietly, "Since you're awake, I can give you the bone regrowth potion as well as a dreamless sleep potion."

Hermione shook her head. "I'll take the bone regrowth, but no sleep potions. They won't work on me." She took a deep breath. "Fred, take down the shield." He did so somewhat begrudgingly. "I- we need to see Professor Dumbledore as soon as possible."

The nurse smiled. "My dears, I've already sent for him. Now drink this and let's get that leg of yours fixed." She turned to Fred. "If you wouldn't mind releasing them?" She phrased it as a question, but it really wasn't a question at all. Fred waved his wand at the boys and sat next to Hermione as they waited for Dumbledore.

. . . .

When the headmaster finally arrived with Professor McGonagall, the boys were seated along the wall. They watched Hermione and Fred, who were ignoring them and watching the door, while the nurse watched the boys to make sure they behaved. McGonagall dragged the three off while Dumbledore settled down to listen as Hermione thought quickly about what she was to say.

"Sir, our names are Fred and Hermione, and I'm afraid I can't answer any questions you have until you've answered mine."

Dumbledore eyed the young pair. The girl, Hermione, looked so small and frail in the giant bed. There were dark shadows under eyes. He couldn't tell much of her condition due to the layers of dirt still coating her person. The boy, Fred, stood by her side, silently giving his support as she spoke. He seemed to trust the girl completely. Dumbledore wasn't certain why he felt that was the truth, but he had learned to trust his instincts when it came to situations like this.

"Alright," he said finally. "You may ask what you will, and after you have the information you need, we'll continue this talk later when you're completely healed."

Hermione smiled slightly. "Thank you, sir. I only have a couple questions." She took a deep breath. "Who were those boys who were just here?"

The principal frowned. "Miss, I can hardly see how that-"

"Please, sir," Fred interrupted. "She wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."

Once again he studied them. Her face was pale and his was expressionless. They looked almost as though they were dreading his answer. "James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black. They're rather infamous here for their various pranks and mischief making. In fact, their little group is called-"

"The Marauders," Fred and Hermione said simultaneously. Their gazes locked in shock and resignation. Hermione said very quickly, "Professor, what is the date?"

Fred's eyes were staring into hers as they heard the wizard say, "September 1st". Only, instead of the 1990s like they hoped, it was 1977.

"Master, that is all I needed to know, thank you," Hermione said shakily. Unbeknownst to her, her hands had reached up to clutch at Fred's shirt. His hands automatically came up and his thumbs began rubbing soothing circles on her knuckles.

"We'll come see you as soon as Hermione feels up to it," Fred said calmly. Outside, he appeared to be slightly stunned, but inwardly he was reeling.

Dumbledore nodded gravely and stood. "I'll send Miss Evans to check on you tomorrow evening. Rest well." And with that, he left.

Fred sank onto the bed next to her. "Hermione. We're twenty years in the past. How did that even happen?" Hermione shook her head and hugged him tightly.

"I don't know," she whispered. They sat in silence for a few moments as they both tried to wrap their minds around what happened to them.

Suddenly, she grabbed his arm. Her face was pale and her eyes were bright. "Fred. You said that we were hit with a spell and then a wall right?"

"Yeah, why?"

She fished around in her shirt for a moment. Triumphantly, she held up a black and broken necklace. "This must be why we're back in the 1970s."

"I'm glad you figured it out, but once again, I have no idea what you're talking about."

She rolled her eyes. "It's a time turner, Fred."

Fred didn't want to believe it, but Hermione was rarely wrong about such things. "Does that mean that we're stuck here?"

Hermione shrugged slightly. "I'm not sure. As far as I know, these things were only supposed to go back twenty-four hours. I guess the spell must have messed with the mechanics of it though." She frowned. "We can't tell anyone we're from the future."

Fred snorted. "Of course not. Who'd believe that? But what'll we tell Dumbledore?"

Hermione thought for a moment. "I don't think we should tell him. They barely know anything about the war yet. We can just say we merely accidentally apparated here." She wrinkled her nose. "We do look rather frightful. No one's going to question it if we say we couldn't focus in the middle of the fight."

"And what fight would that be? We can't tell them it was against Death Eaters. We'd mess up the timeline if that were to happen."

"Rogue wizards maybe?" Hermione suggested.

Fred shrugged. "Sure." He ruffled her hair. "We're going to have to change our appearances, you know." He twirled a long curl around his finger.

"I'll cut mine and put some highlights in. You can make yours a slightly different shade of red. After we both shower, we'll see how many scars from the dark magic we have and then decide if we want to bother with glamour charms the entire time we're here."

"Sounds good to me," Fred answered as a giant yawn escaped Hermione. "You better get some sleep. We can work out the details tomorrow."

. . . .

"Why don't you stay here and become the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professors?" Dumbledore suggested.

"WHAT?!" Hermione and Fred both exclaimed in shock.

"From what you've told me, you're both very qualified, in fact, perhaps overly qualified for the position. And it would give you a place to stay for the time being."

Hermione and Fred stared at each other and then at Dumbledore. Hermione rubbed her temples. "Sir, we literally just told you we're on the run, and now you wish to hire us as professors, even though neither of us finished our education?"

"Sir, you don't even know our skill level! We were a bloody mess when we arrived! We could be terrible at dueling!" Fred added, sounding slightly panicked at the end.

Seeing as the two did have a few points, Dumbledore put his hands together and tapped his fingers as he thought. Hermione and Fred sat patiently, though slightly anxiously, as they waited the principal's decision.

"What if you were to stage a mock duel between the two of you for the other teachers and students to see?"

Hermione's face hardened. "With all due respect, sir, I was trained to fight in a war. The hexes and jinxes that I know are not the sort innocent students should be taught. If you were to place either of us in a duel, our instinct would be to immediately take out the enemy. By any means necessary," she said.

Though she spoke quietly, Dumbledore could tell there was steel in her voice. She would not budge on this. He turned to Fred. "And what about you? Do you think the same?"

"Yes, sir," Fred answered immediately. His harsh tone did not match the light expression on his face. "I will not be responsible for putting into students' heads the idea to look up dark curses." He rubbed a hand tiredly over his face and slunk down in his seat.

Dumbledore clapped slowly. Hermione and Fred looked at him in surprise. "I think you will do fine as teachers here. You have more experience than the past five DADA teachers had all together. And your answers told me far more about you than I had hoped." He stood up from his desk. "Your first class is in a week."

And with that, he strode from the room, leaving a perplexed duo wondering what the heck just happened.


	3. Chapter 3: Teaching Positions

After a very curious, yet very polite, Miss Evans showed them their quarters, Fred and Hermione set about fixing themselves up. They had only had time to do brief cleaning charms, which in their case, still left quite a lot to be desired.

Hermione commandeered the bathroom while Fred dug through her small wrist purse she had miraculously held onto throughout their adventures. Its extension charm allowed her to have several sets of clothes on hand for herself and possibly for him. Harry and Ron were both slightly thicker and shorter than Fred, but that was nothing a shrinking charm couldn't fix. He decided he might as well pull out everything she had kept in the bag.

One large, several roomed tent, three sleeping packs, a week's worth of travel rations, Harry's invisibility cloak, a ridiculously huge map, a combined total of twenty-seven sets of clothes, and roughly fifty or so books later, Fred decided this was a terrible idea. He wasn't even halfway finished with unloading the purse. He had to admire Hermione though. When she spelled something, it stuck.

He fell back on the floor, wincing slightly as his bruises were still tender, and dozed off.

. . . .

After being on the run for three years, hygiene had almost lost all meaning to Hermione. Once she had scrubbed off all the sweat and blood and dirt she had gathered, she felt like a new person. And when she slid down into the steaming tub, she almost cried from sheer bliss. Her body refused to leave until the water turned cold. She felt like her bones had turned to goo as she forced herself to dry off.

She looked at her naked body in the steam-proof mirror. Fierce scars ran all over her skin. Her arm that had been burned, while smooth now, would always be a sharp red mixed with ugly pink of scarred tissue. The numerous cuts and slashes she had received would always be an ugly purple. She traced her fingers lightly over the largest one that stretched across her chest.

Hermione had never been one who cared for looks. She was more concerned with who a person was than what they looked like. But looking at her horrifically marked body made her feel small. It made her feel worthless. Insecure.

It made her feel broken, like she would never be whole again.

That was thing about dark magic. Her scars would never fade. They would always look just as harsh and ugly as they did now. If she had not thoroughly researched healing and dark magics, the probability that she would be severely handicapped was high.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she raised her wand and shattered the mirror. Carefully, she dressed. She made sure her teeth were clean and the tub was cleared of her things before she left the bathroom. She walked out to find Fred asleep on the floor.

She shook her head at the mess he had made. Then she gently woke him up and let him know the bathroom was free. He stared at her groggily for a moment and then nodded. As he stood to leave, she spoke.

"Be careful of the glass."

"What?"

"I, um, couldn't bring myself to clean it up, so, um, be-be careful where you step." She busied herself with sorting through the items he had dumped on the floor.

He watched her for a moment. She seemed jumpy, but not the kind where she was on the watch for danger. It was more like the kind of jumpy people get when they realize others can see their weaknesses and they aren't sure how the other person is going to react.

"No problem," he said lightly, tucking his hands into his pockets. "I'll take care of it. I'll make sure any other glass that gets broken later on gets cleaned up as well." And with that he turned and headed to get himself taken care of.

He didn't notice Hermione's shoulders sink in relief.

. . . .

When Fred returned, he said nothing about the mirror being broken. He didn't ask why, he didn't comment on how much glass there was. He just walked in and asked her if she knew any good hair charms.

They got to work on altering their appearances. Hermione's thick bushy hair was no longer down to her waist. Her plain brown hair was now shaved at the sides and back. The top was a few inches long and an unruly mess of honey highlighted curls. She left her eyes alone, but her face, neck, and arms received heavy layers of glamour charms to hide her marks.

Fred refused flat out to let her cut his hair. Hermione glared at him for being obstinate, but eventually gave in and merely darkened it to a more auburn color. He too placed heavy glamour charms on his arms, neck and face. He didn't particularly feel the need to, but he knew it would make Hermione feel better.

He also made sure to remove every large mirror in their quarters.

Once they were finished, they worked on their clothes. Both of them needed their shirts and pants to be taken in by several inches. Fred, just because he was a giant beanpole. Hermione, because she had lost an unhealthy amount of weight during her adventures. Once their clothes were the necessary sizes, they debated style. Hermione stated that since they were supposed to be defense teachers, they could do whatever they wanted with the styles. They were trained to fight and stay alive and their fashion choices would reflect that.

Fred was thrilled at this idea and promptly spelled all his clothes to change colors every ten seconds and the patterns to change every four. Hermione didn't even bother to scold him. It wouldn't do any good anyways.

She drew the line when he tried to change the colors of her highlights.

. . . .

It had been four days since the Marauders were chased out of the infirmary by MacGonagall. They had gone back three nights ago, only to find the two strangers had disappeared.

They had imagined all sorts of scenarios as to how they became so injured. Remus did his best to keep them sensible, but James and Sirius were having none of it. Logic was not nearly as interesting as their wild imaginations.

They had thought the two might have left, but Lily Evans, overhearing the conversation, corrected them. The two were living in the previously unused rooms near the Hufflepuff den. She refused to tell them where said common room was located however. She didn't know why they were staying there, but she did know that they would not live in peace if James Potter had anything to say about it. The boys begged and cajoled and flirted and bribed, but Lily was not to be swayed.

It was Thursday evening at dinner time when they finally got the answers to some of their questions. McGonagall announced at the beginning that Professor Dumbledore would be a little late since he was collecting the new DADA teacher and that the students were to go ahead and eat. This information set the whole hall abuzz, even the teachers. At the start of the week, they had been told that Defense Against Dark Arts classes were temporarily unavailable due to the lack of a qualified teacher.

Dumbledore strode into the hall ten minutes later, and the students were surprised to see not one but two teachers following him. Not only were there two, but they were the strangers who had dropped in on them during the welcome feast.

Sirius watched them closely as the hall went dead quiet. They didn't appear to be nervous at all. Nor did they seem to be at all interested in the attention they received. If anything, they didn't even notice it. He saw the boy lean down and whisper something to the girl. Her expression relaxed slightly as she nudged him in the ribs.

From where he was sitting, he couldn't really make out her features. He knew she had cut her hair, but it had been such a tangled mess, she probably had to. Her hairstyle was a bit odd though. None of the girl he knew, and he knew quite a few, wore their hair like that.

The boy was tall and lanky. The way he walked, hands in the pockets of his jacket, shoulders slouched slightly, made him look as though he hadn't a care in the world. He did hover protectively near the girl, which made Sirius wonder briefly if the two were dating.

James leaned over to him. "Those can't be our new teachers. They look like they're our age!" he whispered.

Remus heard and whispered back from across the table. "They must be good if Dumbledore hired them."

Sirius snorted. "You mean like the last five we've had? I'm not going to listen to them until I know they can actually teach us things."

James nodded. "Same as every year. They're probably the last people he could find crazy enough to want the position."

At that moment, Dumbledore addressed the still hushed student body. He muttered an amplifying charm and then spoke. "I'd like to introduce your new Defense Against Dark Arts teachers. To my left is Hermione Greene. To my right is Fred West. Don't be afraid to ask them questions. Classes with them begin on Monday!"

He was about to sit down, when McGonagall spoke up. "Sir, we know nothing about these two, how on earth are they to teach? How do we know their qualifications?"

He smiled at her. "I have interviewed them thoroughly. They are beyond qualified. Also, do not be surprised if they visit a few of your classes tomorrow to get a feel for how to we teach here." And with that the discussion was closed no matter how much everyone wanted to protest.

Newly appointed Professors Greene and West stayed for fifteen minutes and then excused themselves. Only the teachers noticed them leave. The Marauders found this to be suspicious considering all the students were spying on the two, covertly or otherwise.

They had a feeling DADA was going to be different this year.

. . . .

"Why do they have to stare so much?" Hermione griped as they ended their disillusionment spell.

"I quite enjoyed the attention," Fred grinned. He pet her condescendingly on the head, making her frown at him. "Face it, Gran- Greene. We're celebrities right now." His eyes lit up. "It's like we're Harry, but without the hero complex bit."

Hermione huffed. "We are not like Harry, you big goof. C'mon, we have lessons to prepare for."

Fred frowned. "We are not going to write essays all the time. They need actual dueling."

"Agreed. Essays only on strategy, tactics, and long term warfare." She sighed. "We're going to make them as prepared as possible without actually telling them we're preparing them for war."

"They're going to have questions so we might as well just do an introduction tomorrow about who we are and what we plan on teaching them."

"I don't like the idea of wasting more time when there's so much they need to know, but I supposed we'll have to," Hermione mused. "And you're going to have to just call me Hermione all the time. You're going to forget my name at some point and then we're going to be screwed."

Fred made a face. "Fine. But you're required to call me Sir Fred or Fred the Magnificent or-"

"I'm not calling you either of those," Hermione interrupted. "I'm calling you Fred, just like I always do."

. . . .

All the next day, students of all ages watched as their new professors popped into random classes. The two would stand in the very back for fifteen minutes, both taking careful notes, and then leave just as silently as they entered. The other teachers appreciated the lack of disturbance in their classes and were able to carry on as though Greene and West were not present. Everyone was curious about what notes were being written down, but Greene and West were very good at hiding things in plain sight.

"Hey, do you think they're planning on visiting all of our classes?" James whispered to Sirius as Professors Greene and West slid in for the last fifteen minutes of Transfiguration.

Sirius shrugged as he watched them out of the corner of his eye. "Probably. I heard a couple of third years saying they visited all of their classes too."

"Why though? Wouldn't they have enough information on how to teach here if they just saw a few classes of each year?" James asked. His curiosity was in overdrive. These new teachers kept leaving him with more questions than with answers and that just made them all the more appealing.

Sirius and Remus, who had been listening from in front of them, knew that if James didn't get answers soon, the three of them would probably end up doing something ridiculous. Like stalking their teachers.

Remus did not fancy the idea of getting detention for something like that. "James, I'm sure you can ask them after class. They've been staying for fifteen minutes and they came at the end of class. If you hurry and don't dawdle to look at Evans, I'm sure you can corner them and just ask what you want to know."

Sirius agreed. "Yeah, you're not getting far with Evans as usual anyway, so you might as well go catch Greene and West."

James was conflicted. "But look how gorgeous she looks right now! I can't just abandon my love for two strangers!"

Remus shrugged. "It's either the love of your life or satisfying your curiosity. It doesn't matter much to me."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Remus, you have the patience of Dumbledore." He turned to his despairing love sick friend. "James, just skip Evans for now. We'll see her at lunch and the next two classes."

Groaning loudly, earning him a glare from McGonagall, he finally agreed. But if he missed out on dating Lily Evans, he was leaving all the blame on his friends.

. . . .

Hermione and Fred were comparing notes as they walked out of seventh year Divination when they heard their names being called.

Fred exchanged a look with Hermione before answering the boys. "Hello, boys. What can we do for you?"

James Potter was panting slightly as he had run down the hall to catch up with them. "How on earth do you walk so quickly? Professor West, I understand, he probably has legs a mile long, but Mistress Greene? How on earth do you walk so bloody fast?"

Fred laughed out loud while Hermione tried to decide how to take that. "I can honestly say that was not what I was expecting that to be the first question asked by a student," she mused aloud.

James looked at her. "I'm pretty sure you're using teleportation magic, but I have no idea how. There's no way you can walk that fast. Look how short you are!"

"Oi, mate, I wouldn't go there if I were you," Fred said, quickly stepping between Hermione and the boy. James looked at his professor and noticed she had the same look in her eye that the Head Girl sometimes got when she caught them in the middle of a prank. "She's a little sensitive and it's best not to make any references to her height," he whispered conspiratorially.

Remus and Sirius caught up to them. Remus walked between Fred and Hermione, and Sirius walked on Hermione's other side. Fred continued speaking in a stage whisper, loud enough to be heard by Hermione and Sirius.

"I'm telling you, you never insult Hermione's height. She knows more hexes than any other wizard alive, and she can cast them without thinking twice. Why this one time, George and I-"

"Fred West, if you want to save your face from boils that will last a week, I suggest you stop right there," Hermione interrupted coolly. They had reached the doors to the Great Hall. She turned and addressed the three boys. "Don't think for one moment that I've forgotten you constraining me to that bed or that you forcibly took my wand." She stepped closer to them as her voice dropped an octave and any warmth she had previously left completely. "Do not ever do that again. Not to me, not to anybody. Taking a wizard's wand should only be done when someone is intending serious harm." She eyed them all. "Do you understand?"

"But we just wanted to make sure that you- "James began to protest but was completely cut off.

"No," said Fred. His voice, while still light, left them in no doubt where he stood on the subject. Gone was the fun loving boy they had just been talking to. In his place stood someone who was harsh and unyielding. The boys exchanged concerned looks. "A wizard's wand is their main defense," Fred continued. "If you were in an unfamiliar place and someone you had never seen before just plucked your wand out of your hand and strapped you to a bed telling you it was for your own good, how do you think you would feel?"

He watched the boys think as Hermione stood with her arms crossed. "You wouldn't like it much, now would you?" she asked quietly. "And if you had just come from a situation where you were surrounded by enemies it would be even worse wouldn't it." The boys nodded in understanding.

"It won't happen again," Sirius promised. Remus and James nodded beside him.

"See that it doesn't. I might not be able to restrain myself next time." And with that puzzling statement, she opened the doors and sailed in.

Remus looked to Fred who was watching her with an unreadable expression. "Sir, what does she mean when she restrained herself? She was too weak to do anything."

Fred turned to him and grinned. "If there's one thing I've learned about witches, mate, it's that they are never too weak. I don't know where that bloody nonsense about witches being the weaker sex came from, because the strongest people I know are witches." He winked at them as he followed his fellow teacher. "Don't ever assume a girl is weak from her looks."

Hermione reappeared in front of them, scaring the daylights out of the Marauders. "Fred, we still need to go over the notes from the morning classes before we start on the afternoon so if you could kindly get a move on that would be wonderful," she said impatiently as she tapped her foot.

He laughed. "Coming, love. Now, I thought the third years' Herbology was quite amusing..."

They turned and walked off towards the teachers' table, discussing the pros and cons of all the classes the entire way. The boys stood there and stared for a good thirty seconds before their stomachs reminded them of their dire need for food.

Once their plates were filled, James muttered, "Our new professors are weird as hell."

Sirius nodded. "I was hoping for someone more normal for once."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "What part of that was weird? They seemed like perfectly rational people to me." At his friends' incredulous looks, he explained. "They just came out of an apparently very intense fight. Didn't you see the amount of blood on their clothes? And the fact that they collapsed soon after aparating in here? Anyways, she wakes up and naturally wants to know where her friend, at least, I'm assuming they're friends- they might be more who knows- but she wants to know where he is and we not only stop her, but we disarm her and literally tie her to a bed where she cannot escape. Her lecturing us for that is not only not weird, but it is perfectly rational and reasonable." He took a deep breath. "That's very normal."

James and Sirius thought about it for a moment. "I suppose we should just be grateful she didn't hex us immediately on sight," James said thoughtfully. "When you put it all together like that, it does make sense."

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed suddenly. "We never found out why they're visiting all the classes for every year!"

"You mean I missed my prime flirting time with Evans for nothing?!" James angrily exclaimed.

. . . .


	4. Chapter 4: Wards and Nightmares

After dinner, Fred waited until they were out of earshot of the students before he asked quietly, "You okay?"

Hermione sighed and slumped her shoulders slightly. "To be honest, no, I'm not. They disarmed me, Fred. They basically took me captive. And I almost took them all out. If I hadn't yelled for you, who knows how badly I could have hurt them." She turned slightly haunted eyes towards him. "I swore no one would ever do that to me again. All my instincts told me to hurt them badly enough that they wouldn't even think twice about coming after me again. And, Fred, I almost did it." She hung her head and refused to look at him.

Fred gently laid his hand between her shoulder blades and began to rub soothing circles on her back. He could feel her tense up at the first contact, but he kept gently petting her, and eventually he could feel her relax a little. "Hermione," he said gently. "You're eighteen and have had more dangerous adventures and more horrible experiences that anyone three times your age should have. It's okay for you to feel fear. It's normal, natural. If they knew what all you've been through in the past seven years, they would be incredibly troubled by their actions our first night here."

He moved his hand to her face and slightly nudged her chin. He waited patiently for her to meet his eyes again. "Hermione, I want you to keep something in mind. Yes, you could have torn those boys apart. You could have very easily killed or maimed them. You could have made it so they never used magic again." He looked as serious and real as he could. He wanted her to see without a doubt how much he meant what he was about to tell her.

"But you didn't. When every instinct screamed for you to use violence, you called for me. You called for me, not your magic. Any time you feel like you're about to lose control, you call for me okay? Not anyone else. Good ol' Freddie will be there and take care of whatever you don't want to destroy. I'm here."

Hermione stared into his face and searched for any sign that he wasn't telling the truth. But Fred Weasley does not lie to Hermione Granger. And apparently, Fred West did not lie to Hermione Greene either. She believed him.

She nodded once and he let go of her face. "Thank you," she said quietly. Fred bobbed his head awkwardly. Emotional moments were not his forte. They continued in silence down the hall to their quarters.

"Fred," she said right before she entered her room. "Thanks for getting rid of the mirrors."

. . . .

Remus walked around the lake, quietly enjoying the softly sung bird song of the early morning. He had always liked the mornings better. The peacefulness was always welcome in his life. He loved James and Sirius, he did, but sometimes they were a bit much to handle.

James's constant curiosity and nosiness landed them frequently in trouble with their Head Girl. Lily Evans wasn't really known for being a shy girl. She insisted, usually in a loud tone, that James behave himself. He never did.

Sirius's only problem seemed to be his need for thrills. He needed to be kept on his toes. Remus was pretty certain that his friend was close to running out of girls to date. Between the girls and the pranking, Sirius was running on a continual high.

He was just heading back to Hogwarts when he saw Professor West coming towards him.

"Lupin!" his teacher called. He jogged up as Remus waited patiently. "What are you doing up this early? Where are your fellow pranksters?"

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Pranksters?" he said cautiously. As far as he knew, the Marauders hadn't been caught by the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers in the last twenty-four hours. They'd been here for a week. Surely, they hadn't found out that quickly.

Fred grinned. "I recognize a prankster from a mile away. So can Hermione. Don't even try to play innocent with me on that one."

Remus stored that away for further analysis. He shrugged. "They're probably all still in bed."

"I'd be doing the same, but I've got teacher-y things to do." Fred started off again. "Some free advice?"

"Sure," Remus said. He felt a tad uneasy.

"Don't prank my class." Fred winked and took off. "See you at dinner!"

"What about breakfast and lunch?" Remus yelled after him, but West was already out of earshot. His teacher was fast.

Weird. One minute West was a friendly sort, ready with an easy smile and light remarks. The next, he was giving them serious looks and advice. He wondered what made him like that. Remus simply could not figure his teacher out.

He entered the main courtyard to see Professor Greene sitting cross-legged on the ground. He walked up to her. "Um, Professor?"

She didn't turn her head, just continued to make herself comfortable. "Yes, Lupin?"

He wasn't surprised that she knew who he was even though she didn't see him. He was fairly certain that she had some way of seeing without seeing. "Um, Professor, what are you doing?"

"I'm making myself comfortable. What are you doing? It's a quarter past six on a Saturday." She glanced up at him.

"Oh, um, I was just out for a walk. Why are you making yourself comfortable?"

"Oh, do you like the mornings too? They are rather quiet around here." The corners of her mouth turned up slightly. It was the closest he'd ever seen her come to a smile.

"Yes, ma'am. Sometimes Sirius and James can be rather noisy." He chuckled. "It's necessary for me to get some kind of quiet."

"I can understand that." She resumed straightening her back and settling into position.

"Professor, you didn't answer my question," Remus reminded her.

"Hm, I wasn't aware that I was required to answer," she said flatly. "I'm making myself comfortable because I'm going to be sitting here for quite some time. Now, shoo." She made waving motions with her hands. She didn't seem irritated with him, just ready to get on with whatever she was doing. "I need to set up a shield so no one else bugs me while I'm working."

"But what are you working-"

"Shoo!"

He saw a light come into her eyes he didn't like the look of. Remembering what Professor West had said the day before, he shooed.

Hermione Greene was an even bigger mystery than Fred West. However, it was time he wake up the others and get breakfast. Maybe they would have some kind of idea about what on earth his two teachers were doing.

. . . .

"So she was just sitting there in the middle of the yard?" James mumbled through his eggs. He saw Evans watching him and grinned.

Sirius laughed as she turned away disgusted. "Hey, Prongs, maybe you should reconsider smiling with your mouth full."

James winced. "Anyway, she was just sitting there?"

Remus nodded. "Yeah. I don't know what she was doing. I was hoping you would have some ideas."

The boys quickly finished breakfast in order to go find Professor Greene. They started in the courtyard and found her right where Remus had left her. Sirius tried to approach her, but bounced right off the invisible shield. They all tried to walk closer, but they couldn't get within fifteen feet of her.

"This is weird," James said. They made themselves comfortable near a wall of the covered walkway and started tossing around ideas to break the shield

"Black! Potter!" The boys jumped at the sound of McGonagall's voice above them. "What are you doing trying to disturb Professor Greene?"

"We just wanted to know what she was doing, Professor," said Sirius.

"Yes, well, I'm sure you'll be able to ask her eventually, but for now you need to leave her alone. She and West are working very complicated magic and we cannot risk interference."

The boys allowed themselves to be ushered back towards the school. "But what is she doing?" Remus asked.

"Mister Lupin, it is not my place to say. However, I am curious myself as to how she knows how to cast such complicated magic at such a young age."

"But she's not even using her wand or saying anything!" James said. "She's just sitting there!"

"The less a wizard has to move or say to make things happen, the more impressive and complicated the spells," McGonagall said quietly. "The fact that she is as young as she is and can do things that only mages like Dumbledore can do is very impressive."

Remus and Sirius exchanged a concerned glance at the slight waver in her voice. "No disrespect, Professor, but you don't sound impressed," James said. "You sound scared as hell."

She said nothing for a moment, merely pursed her lips together tightly. "I believe you all have several parchments worth of essays to write by Monday," she said coolly. She stared them down until they got the hint and headed back inside.

Neither Professor West nor Professor Greene were seen at dinner that night.

. . . .

Hermione finally emerged from the pile of books she was researching. Fred was falling asleep on a stack of papers, drool starting to form at the corner of his mouth. She watched him for a moment, envious of his seemingly pleasant sleep. The warding must have worn him out more than she thought.

She could feel her own eyes start to droop. She fought the exhaustion setting in as hard as she could, but sleep would eventually claim her. She knew, and still she fought.

Sleep had not been her friend for years now. Not since Voldemort came back. Not since she made it her personal mission to keep Harry alive.

In her dreams she saw everything. She saw death and destruction. She saw hatred and pain and despair. She saw gruesome wounds made by torture and hideous corpses torn apart by battle.

In her dreams she heard everything. The screams, the crying, the heavy breathing of people too scared to move. She heard threats and horrendous screeching. She heard the deathly silence after a hard-won battle with very little actually achieved.

In her dreams she felt, and oh, how she felt. Her nerves on fire, electrifying her, trying to burn her from the inside out. The sharp, keen edge of a knife slicing with little resistance through her skin and muscle all the way to the bone. The force of her body being flung into thick, heavy stone walls. She felt the aches in her joints and-

She screamed in frustration. She was so tired, she just needed _rest_. She didn't want to fight any more. She didn't want to see the faces of her dead friends floating in her mind. She didn't want to hear their voices. She didn't want to think about all the what-ifs any more.

"HERMIONE!"

Her eyes snapped open.

Feeling a hand on her arm, she recognized it as Fred's a second too late. Her body was already moving across the table, her left arm throwing up her wand and casting a shield as she sent a stinging hex towards him. He barely dodged out of the way. He bent over with his hands on his knees as he looked up through his thick wave of hair.

They met each other's eyes and just stared at each other for moment.

"Mione?" Fred asked hesitantly.

She took a deep breath and lowered her shield. She ran her fingers through her short curls. "I'm fine," she said. "I'm fine. Just a dream. I'm fine." She shoved her wand into her arm holster. "I'm going for a walk. Get some fresh air and clear my head."

Fred straightened up and nodded. As the door began to shut behind her, she paused. "Fred." Her eyes were tight and drawn with dark shadows underneath. "We did win right? You saw us win."

Her broken voice almost brought tears to his eyes. He couldn't let her see that. He grinned a lazy, easy smile. "Yeah, kid. We definitely won all right."

She let out a steadying breath and forcibly gathered herself together. Hermione Granger did not allow herself to fall apart. Ever. She had made it through a war, and by Merlin, she would not let the after effects beat her.

Fred watched her nod to herself and him and walk out the door. There was no spring in her step. There was no click of her heels. But her stride was determined. Her back was straight. Her head was up.

Hermione Granger was definitely not okay. But she would be.


	5. Chapter 5: Rules and Duels

"Hermione! Ow! Watch where you're yanking! I've only got two ears you know!"

"Well, if you would actually focus on getting to class on time, I wouldn't have to fetch you like this now would I?" came the cool retort.

The door to seventh year Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw double DADA was suddenly flung open. In strode Professor Greene as she dragged Professor West by his ear. She let go of him at the front of the classroom.

As she took a moment to dust herself off, Professor West glared at her and rubbed his head, muttering about forceful women. The class took a moment to observe their odd teachers.

Greene was not dressed in typical teacher's robes. She wore a sleeveless dark grey hooded cotton jacket over a long sleeved mesh shirt. Her legs were covered in some kind of stretchy looking black material, a wand holster tied to her left leg. Worn looking, dark grey combat boots covered her feet.

West was dressed very similarly. He wore the same jacket and pants as Greene, but his shirt was a bright magenta. He wore an arm wand holster instead of a leg holster, and his hair was tied up in a very messy bun on top of his head.

The students had never seen anything like it. Even the muggleborns were confused.

"My name is Hermione Greene as you all know, and welcome to DADA," Professor Greene began suddenly. "This is Fred West. We will be co-teaching this year."

Professor West half seated himself lazily on the desk and waved. "We decided that since this is our first time teaching, and none of you have ever heard of us, we would use this first class to go over rules, goals, and what you know. You may also ask any questions you have."

"However," Greene said forcefully, "we reserve the right to not answer certain questions. Since this class is a double, we will be having our first lesson after the first hour passes."

West stood up and clapped his hands. "Let's get these rules out of the way before we go further. We have only three. It was a chore talking Mione down from the original seventy-six, but I managed to save you."

Professor Greene glanced at him. "I had fifteen, not seventy-six," she assured the somewhat nervous seventh years. "And if you cannot follow these three, I will be enforcing the other twelve. So listen up." She waited until she was absolutely positive she had the attention of every single student. "First rule: I am not a professor. Fred is not a professor. Do not call us 'professor'- we won't answer."

"We are, however, your teachers. Outside of school related conversations and this classroom, we are Fred and Hermione. If that makes you uncomfortable, Miss Hermione and Mr. Fred are perfectly acceptable. Or simply Greene and West," Fred said.

Hermione continued. "Rule number two: our instructions are to be obeyed to the letter. You may ask questions if you do not understand something, even if it's just 'why'. We'll explain. We're here to help you, not make you mindless followers. So ask as many questions as you like."

"But when we give you instructions about certain spells or homework or exercises, you are to follow them," Fred said seriously. "The point of this class is to save your and other's lives. So pay attention."

"Third rule: you are not to use the spells we teach you on each other unsupervised by either Fred or myself."

Fred shoved his hands in his pockets and paced a little. "Some of you may have noticed, our absence from the Great Hall the last few days. We took the precaution of adding an extra layer of enchantments and warding around the castle. Any time you use a spell you've been expressly forbidden from using, we'll know."

Hermione's eyes were ice cold shards. "We will know, and you will be punished. This is not a light hearted class. Dark Arts are not to be trifled with. And neither is your defense against them."

The two watched their class quietly. They made eye contact with each of the students so they knew exactly how serious they were.

Fred's face suddenly relaxed into a giant grin. "Now, who's got the first question?"

. . .

"Hey, Nan! How are the new profs?" Sirius asked as he caught up to the exhausted Ravenclaw. Her hair, usually perfectly curled, was tossed up in a messy bun and her feet dragged as she and her housemates headed to lunch.

"Sirius, they're insane. Totally and utterly insane. Do you have double with Slytherin today?"

"Not till Wednesday. What'd they do?"

"You'll see. They're clearly crazy good. But they're insane."

. . .

By the end of the day, the new teachers were all anyone could talk about. Seventh year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs and third year Slytherins and Gryffindors were the only ones who had class with Greene and West so far. Housemates were grilling each other on the way the teachers taught, who they were, etc. Unfortunately, outside of a few basic things (like age and experience levels) nobody could get a straight answer.

Finally, in the middle of the hubbub right before Dumbledore began dinner, a seventh year Hufflepuff stood up and slammed his hands on the table. "YOU WON'T BELIEVE US EVEN IF WE TOLD YOU SO JUST WAIT TILL YOUR OWN DAMN TURNS."

James whispered to Sirius and Remus, "I don't think I've ever seen a Hufflepuff lose it before."

Remus shrugged. "They were bound to eventually. All that niceness must be tough to store up all the time." He turned from watching the Hufflepuff table to see Sirius scanning the Great Hall and almost falling off the bench.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for Pete. I haven't seen him lately and I miss the little rat."

"He told me he was working on extra credit for Slughorn or something."

James looked confused. "The term just started though. He can't be that far behind."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Just because you never study, that doesn't mean everyone else skips too."

James was about to retort, but the doors flew open and in walked Hermione and Fred.

"Are those muggle clothes?" Sirius asked in disbelief.

A muggleborn girl down the table overheard him. "Not any muggle clothes I've ever seen."

James eyes narrowed. There was something off about Hermione. He couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"She's so skinny," whispered Lily. The boys visibly started, having not heard her approach.

"He doesn't look exactly like he's been eating well either," Sirius noted. "Hey, Marlene, you think they've got eating disorders?"

Marlene looked up from her conversation on the other side of Lily. She studied the two carefully, noting how they walked and moved. "No," she said finally. "They've just had really bad eating habits the last few years. Look at how little she's putting on her plate."

They watched as Hermione seemed to just pick at her food as she talked with Fred. She only actually put about five bites in her mouth before she grabbed an apple and left.

Fred ate more than Hermione, but not by much. He too grabbed an apple and left as soon as was socially acceptable.

"Welp, rumor has it we can ask them anything when we finally have class," James said thoughtfully.

"A galleon that it has something to do with how they showed up here the first time," Sirius said immediately.

"Taken," said Remus and James simultaneously.

. . .

"Now, who has the first question?" Fred asked. It was finally their last time teaching a group for the first time. And lucky them, it was the seventh year Gryffindors and Slytherins.

A hand shot up in the air. Hermione waved to it as she leaned against the front of the desk next to Fred. "Miss Velfen?"

"How old are you?"

Fred sighed. "Oh for Merlin's sake, that should have been spread around by now!" he muttered as he ran his fingers through his hair.

Hermione uncrossed her arms and held her hand palm up as she answered. "I'm eighteen. And Fred here is nineteen."

Fred glared at the poor Miss Velfen who was shrinking into her desk. Hermione started snapping her fingers. He turned his glare on her. She merely glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. Sighing deeply, he dug into his pocket and pulled out five sickles. As he dropped them into her hand, the corners of her mouth turned up ever so slightly.

"Next question?"

Lily slowly raised her hand. "You two are awfully young to be professors."

Hermione raised an eyebrow as she folded back into herself. Fred grinned. "I believe we just went over the fact that we are not actually professors."

Lily waved her hand. "Semantics. How did you convince Dumbledore to let you teach?"

"He offered us the job, we didn't apply," Hermione answered.

"We told him our story, and when he found out that we had nowhere to go for now, he said we could teach here," Fred elaborated.

"So what's your story?" asked James, curiosity surrounding him like an aura.

"Unfortunately, that falls under 'questions we decline to answer'," Fred answered lightly. "Who's next?"

"Me," said Sirius immediately. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "So are you two together or what?"

Hermione scowled at him. "You couldn't hold that question off for five more minutes?" she muttered as she dug into her pocket for a couple of knuts. She flicked them over towards Fred's general direction.

He snatched the coins just before they flew past him. "We've been friends since she was eleven and I was thirteen. But I don't think we've ever dated," he mused.

A Slytherin girl in back corner spoke up. "How the hell do you _think_ you've never dated? Isn't that something you should know for sure?"

Fred grinned. "I mean, we did kiss back when she was fifteen, but she was pretty stuck on my twat of a brother-"

"Okay, _first of all_," Hermione interrupted. The tone of her voice left the students in no doubt that this was an old argument. "We were stuck under magical mistletoe. We didn't have a choice. Second of all, I was _not_ 'stuck on' your brother." She narrowed her eyes at him. "And thirdly, I'm not entirely sure you want to continue talking about such things, considering the amount of dirt I've got on _you_."

Fred's hands flew up in a gesture of surrender as he backed away from her slightly. "Okay, okay, we don't need to bring up past mistakes. There's a reason we left them back there, right?"

Remus spoke up. "Just so we're all clear, does that mean you didn't date and you aren't together?"

"Yes," Hermione said firmly. She raised an eyebrow. "Are we through questioning the relationship between Fred and me or are there any more of these inane wonderings?"

A pale hand on the Slytherin side of the room rose slowly into the air. Hermione paused a moment before acknowledging the skinny, dark haired boy. "Yes, Mr. Snape?"

"How do we know that we'll actually learn something from you?" he asked bluntly. His eyes were hard and emotionless, his voice deep and scratchy.

Fred leaned back against the desk. It was weird talking to a younger version of Snape. "I can assure you, we'll teach you far more than what your previous teachers did. However, what you learn is entirely dependent on you."

The boy's eyes narrowed. "She's only a year older than me. What could she possibly teach me that I haven't already learned on my own?" he sneered.

Fred straightened. "Despite our ages, you will speak towards Hermione with respect. I can tolerate a lot of frank speaking, but you will not treat her that way," he said coolly. Student and teacher shared a momentary battle of wills until Hermione interrupted.

"Fred," she said quietly.

He immediately slunk down into his relaxed pose from moments ago. "Tell you what, Snape- no, actually, all of you listen up. None of you are going to listen to much of what we have to say unless we prove it to you." He said this as a statement, not a question. Slytherins and Gryffindors alike nodded their heads, the Marauders amongst them. Listening to people their age was just too much.

Fred glanced at Hermione. Her face was slightly scrunched as she tried to figure out where he was going with this.

Lily watched as the two teachers stared at each other. Marlene leaned over. "Are they _silently talking _to each other?" she whispered.

Lily shrugged. "Probably. They have known each other for ages and ages."

Sirius leaned forward on his desk, arms still crossed in front of him. He watched as Hermione suddenly huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Who's the best duelist in Gryffindor?" she asked. Seeing that her students didn't quite know how to answer, she huffed again. "All right, fine, I'll pick one. James Potter, get up here. And I want you over there, Evan Rosier, from Slytherin's side. Get up here."

The two boys slowly stood up and walked to the front of the classroom. "Everyone else, scoot to the sides and the back. Fred's going to vanish your desks and seats for a few moments." The class rushed to obey. They didn't understand what was happening, but it looked interesting.

Fred waited until everyone except Hermione, Potter, Rosier, and himself was away from the front of the room. As he flicked his wand and muttered a spell, everything was vanished from the room and a strong shield spell went up over the four.

"Now, you want to see what we can do, correct?" he asked. "Hermione is going to duel both Potter and Rosier. I'm just here to make sure the shield stays."

"Any spells you can think of may be used," Hermione told them. She gave them a serious look. "And I do mean any. They can be the darkest spells you know, or they can be the harmless pranking ones. I don't care. No Unforgivables. Both of you will attack me at the same time. I won't use any attack spells, hexes, or jinxes."

"Whoever knocks her down gets fifty house points," Fred said.

"What happens if by some chance she knocks us down?" James asked, his tone doubtful. She was far too tiny to do much damage, so he wasn't too concerned, but for some reason McGonagall's troubled expression as she watched Hermione in the courtyard kept coming to mind.

Fred laughed loudly. "She's not going to knock you down. She's just going to take your wands."

"Wait, what are you doing?" Rosier demanded as Hermione untied her holster from her leg.

"Oh, didn't we mention it?" Fred asked innocently. "She's dueling you wandless."


	6. Chapter 6: Vs Hermione

Hermione hated dueling.

It wasn't because she was bad at it; if anything, she was _too good._ Every spell she studied, she remembered in frighteningly clear detail. She had practiced over and over and over and studied until her brains felt like mush and then she studied and practiced some more. She had found that with many of the more complicated spells, the basics learned back in first and second year were very important.

But she hated it. She hated the way her body automatically reacted to certain flashes of light. She hated the way she had been conditioned to immediately respond to specific whispers or loud bangs of noise. She hated all the memories. Because to her, she wasn't even really out of a warzone yet.

So when Fred told her she was going to have to be the one answer the challenges she was not pleased. She had scornfully told him that he was a complete idiot and reminded him of their conversation with Dumbledore. If she were to fight a student, one wrong spell and she might very well accidentally kill and she was not going to risk it. Fred's solution had been simple: duel wandless.

If there was one person that she trusted to keep her in check, it was Fred. If there was one person who knew the extent of the spells she had mastered wandlessly, it was Fred. She reluctantly agreed.

So here she was. Standing in front of a class that doubted everything about her, waiting for the two boys to begin. She saw Sirius and Remus huddled together watching closely. She saw Severus Snape standing in the far back by himself, his trained carefully on her. Lily Evans and two of her friends whispered back and forth. She sighed.

Fred raised his wand and cast a shield spell that covered the students. "Whenever you're ready, boys," he said cheerfully.

"_Confringo_!" Rosier shouted immediately.

Hermione raised an eyebrow as she stepped aside. There was a good deal of heat as it blew past her, but the spell held considerably less power than the last time it had been cast towards her.

James pointed his wand. "_Furnunculus_!"

"_Finite Incantatum_," Hermione said quietly before a single boil could be seen on her skin.

"_Obscuro_!" James shouted as Rosier sent an entrail expelling curse.

Hermione tossed up a shield. The curses weren't strong enough make it through to her. She mentally made a note to herself to have a lesson on how to strengthen spells. She narrowed her eyes at the boys.

"When are you going to come at me for real?" she said in a bored tone. "Potter, you're supposed to be Head Boy and notorious prankster. Rosier, you're a Slytherin." She tapped her foot impatiently. "Show me something that can prove you're not complete idiots. Please. At this rate I can take you out with muggle means, for pity's sake!"

Rosier was incensed. How dare she. "_Defodio_!" he hissed. Deep gouges ripped into the floor and walls and ceiling. A slicing charm, slug-vomiting charm, and a stinging hex quickly followed. James threw in a tongue-tying curse and tripping jinx. He threw in some of the spells he and the other Marauders had been working on. He cast every jinx and hex and curse he could think of. Rosier was doing the same.

Hermione barely moved from her spot. She would occasionally step to the right or left or sway out of the way. Her eyes were busy taking in their movements and cataloging what spells they knew and how quickly they threw them and how much power the two had. Finally, she decided that she had gathered enough information on where the boys were academically.

And then she moved.

To the students watching, it almost appeared as though she were dancing as she stepped here and there and that spot over there. She skillfully avoided every curse hurled her way. The boys grew more and more desperate the closer she came and their magic grew wildly out of control.

With a start, James realized that she was right in front of him and the next thing he knew, he was looking at the ceiling stones laughing hysterically as his legs flopped around. He tried to stop laughing, but he was just so happy all of a sudden. He tried to get up but his legs wouldn't listen to him and let him stand. He started to panic.

Rosier was in the same boat. One second he's about to hit her with a destruction spell, and the next, his legs turned to jelly and his teeth grew painfully fast. He tried to stop both but found his tongue was also stuck to the roof of his mouth.

Fred saw the boys' distress and ended the charms and jinxes Hermione had sent them. The class watched quietly as Fred sorted out the two and put them back to normal.

"Mate, look at her," Sirius whispered to Remus and Peter. The boys glanced over where Hermione stood with her back against the wall. She watched everything with a look of cool indifference and made no move to help Fred.

Remus ignored West completely. He focused his complete attention on Greene. She looked almost too relaxed. Her entire body posture seemed as though it were carefully calculated. He wasn't sure what kind of message she was trying to send, but if even Sirius was noticing, then Hermione Greene was definitely someone he needed to pay attention to.

When he was positive Potter and Rosier were back to normal, Fred stood up and made all the desks and chairs reappear.

"Everyone, back to your seats," he said. Remus watched as he tossed Hermione's wand back to her and she caught it without moving her gaze from the class.

"Now tell me," Fred said, "does anyone here think that we're not qualified to teach? Does anyone think that there's nothing we can teach you?"

Lily raised her hand. "Um, what exactly did she hit them with? I couldn't follow it at all after they started casting so quickly."

James decided right then and there that he absolutely hated it when Greene raised her eyebrows since it usually seemed to mean that she was completely unimpressed. It was hard to tell sometimes since her eyes were always empty and blank. But right now, he was fairly positive that she found the Head Girl lacking.

She brought her arms up and crossed them in front of her as she continued to lean against the wall. "Potter, Rosier, can you tell us what spells you were hit with?"

Rosier hesitated. "Jelly legs and tongue-tying, I think."

Fred grinned. "Ten points to Slytherin. What was the third one?"

The boy subconsciously rubbed his mouth. "I don't know," he admitted. "I've never seen that one before."

Hermione looked over at the Gryffindor side. "Potter?"

"Tickling charm of some sort, I think. I have no idea what the second one was."

"And the third?"

"There was a third?"

Hermione sighed and pushed herself off the wall so she could pace in front of the class. "Five points to Gryffindor. Rosier, you were hit with _Densaugeo_, a spell created specifically to make teeth grow painfully quickly. Potter, you were hit with _Rictusempra_\- a tickling charm- as well as a powerful cheering charm on top of it. Your legs were hit with _Tarantallegra_, which is an uncontrollable dancing spell. Quite frankly, Potter, yours could have easily been broken had you kept your panic down."

She surveyed the class. Every eye was on her, not a single person was distracted. "How many of you were impressed with the spells used here today?"

Hands went up all over the room. Not as many Slytherin. Rosier and Potter kept their hands down as well. Rosier had the feeling that he had done slightly better than Potter, but still fell short of the mark.

Hermione hummed to herself. "Really. I only saw four that caught my attention and those weren't anything to write home about. If they were to fight in the real world do you know what would happen to them?"

"They wouldn't just have their wands taken away," Fred answered for them. "They would die. Especially if they're fighting a dark wizard."

"Especially if there's a war brewing just outside these walls," Hermione said tersely. "You think that weak magic is going to save you? It isn't. Your first homework assignment is two feet of parchment on how to get more power behind your magic. And come prepared to be questioned on boggarts."

Lily raised her hand again. "Ms. Greene, we covered boggarts ages ago."

The dreaded eyebrow was raised once more. "Excellent. Then I expect you all to be able to defeat it at once."

Fred grinned. "It's gonna be fun, I promise. Also, be prepared to run." He skipped right over the hands that were raised. "Now, we've got about ten minutes left. Any more personal questions before we never answer any ever again?"

Sirius and Remus exchanged a look before Sirius raised his hand.

"Black. And, Merlin, please make it an interesting question."

Sirius' lips quirked into a hesitant smile but his eyes betrayed his nervousness. "I'm not entirely certain this qualifies as interesting, but a few of us were wondering as to why neither of you eat very much."

Fred's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"I mean, you guys hardly ever stay for dinner or lunch, and when you do stay, you only eat a handful of bites before taking off." Sirius grew thoughtful. "It's almost like you have an eating disorder or the very thought of food disgusts you and you can't even force yourself to eat anymore."

"And you're really skinny," Peter chimed in.

Everyone began to carefully examine the two. Now that the Marauders had pointed it out, Hermione and Fred were painfully tiny. Their clothes, while form-fitting, still hung off of them. Both of their hands were knobby and bony and their collarbones could be clearly seen.

Hermione placed her hands in her back pockets, away from the scrutiny of her students. "You're right. The thought of food does disgust me. It's difficult for me to keep much down at the moment, especially food as rich as the food here." She met Sirius' eyes squarely. "But that's what happens when you barely eat for three years." She glanced at Fred.

"I can eat more than Hermione because I wasn't as busy as she was. But it's still very difficult and I'm very disappointed to say that I can only handle fruits, vegetables, and a little bread at the moment."

"Why were you barely eating?" Snape's hoarse voice came from the back.

Hermione shrugged. "I was busy. Just know that it wasn't on purpose," she added wryly.

"And with that we're out of time!" Fred announced. He pulled a basket from behind the desk and walked to the door. "Everyone, feel free to help yourself to a canary cream! Specially made just for you!" As the students filed past, he cheerfully told them to have a great evening.

When he turned back to Hermione she had already packed up their things and straightened the room.

Pushing him out the door, she said, "You owe me galleon."

"What? I do not."

"Nobody asked why we kept exchanging money. You owe me a galleon."

"Ok, fine. But you owe me eight sickles since you had to duel."

"You still owe me like nine sickles then."

"Miser," he muttered under his breath.

. . .

Professor McGonagall could not figure out why so many of her students kept turning into bright yellow birds during Transfiguration. She gave out several detentions, before giving up and putting them all to seat work.


	7. Chapter 7: Enter Patronus

Anna was trying her best not to cry. Or faint. She was ever so embarrassed. Having the entire class staring at her was not helping either. She stared down at her desk and wondered if it were too late to go home and give up on learning magic.

"Anna, look at me please."

Slowly, she raised her head until her eyes met Professor Greene's. Her terror increased. Everyone knew that if you were going to get into trouble in Defense Against the Dark Arts you avoided offending or angering Professor Greene. She was harsh, strict, cold, and demanding. Nothing was ever good enough. She pushed all of your buttons at once, turning you against her with every word, and apologized for none of it. She never showed emotion, not a single smile, not a single frown. It was almost like her face was a mask.

Oh, and the word was out that her detentions were dreadful. She made you run laps and do odd exercises and if you cleaned anything, it was muggle all the way.

No, no one fancied getting detention with Professor Greene.

"Anna, what was your assignment?"

"To- to write an essay on the tactics used in one uprising of the Goblin Rebellions, miss," Anna replied miserably as she slink down into her chair. She wished the ground would hurry up and swallow her.

Hermione hummed to herself. "And yet, here I am holding what exactly?" She held the girl's scribbled paper before her. Markings and lines and dots and splotches were dotted all over.

Her nervousness made all of her words fly out in a rush. "I- I just- I was thinking about the uprisings and I couldn't pick just one so I was drawing them out and trying to pick the most interesting one and I spent so much time on that that I forgot to write my essay and I'm so sorry please don't give me detention."

Hermione quirked an eyebrow. "Why would I give you detention?"

Anna's eyes filled with tears. She was going to die from embarrassment she just knew. Oh, her mum and da were right. She never should have left her muggle town to come to this crazy school and the crazy students and the even crazier teachers.

Professor Greene's voice dropped the miniscule degree of warmth it had held moments prior. "Anna Tompkins, I'm waiting."

"I didn't follow directions," the girl whispered miserably.

Hermione snorted. "I've already docked ten house points. There's no need for detention. Now, stop crying. There's no need for tears over a simple essay."

She turned and finished collecting the assignments. Tossing them on her desk, she stood at the front of the room with her arms crossed over her stomach as she leaned on the wall near the blackboard.

"Did any of you actually research the rebellion or did you just use what your History of Magic books say?"

By the sheepish and somewhat terrified looks on their faces, she had her answer.

"Five point from every student that did not look up information from at least two books from any other book other than your textbook." There were murmurs of discontent with that declaration, but no outright cry for reconsideration. Hermione Greene passed judgment and you went with it or suffered the consequences.

Her voice grew harsh and her eyes cold. "When I say research something, I mean it. For your next assignment, you are to write twenty-seven inches of parchment on everything you know about Acromantula. Class dismissed."

She waited until the students had started to leave. "Miss Tompkins, a moment if you please."

Anna sighed. She had hoped to slip out without Professor Greene noticing her any more today. "Yes, miss?"

Hermione shuffled the essays together and said, "You had two rebellion locations and three famous goblins mixed up. Make sure the next time you plan something out, you double check and make sure your information is correct. _Daxx's Delightful Discoveries: a Memoir_ is definitely not the most reliable source for tactical information."

Anna was so startled she spoke without thinking. "But he was the only one who talked about Braulio and his stand against the wizards in Nethels!" She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. She hoped to high heaven and back again that Professor Greene didn't kill her for speaking so disrespectfully.

Hermione snorted. The girl needed a backbone. "You might try reading more on Kinzley. He has a rather vast section on the rebellions in his series. Skip to books 34 and 39. They're the most helpful." She raised an eyebrow. "Two points for adding Laxel's skirmish. Now, I have a pile of dreadful essays to grade since Fred is more likely to gouge out his eyeballs than grade anything written. Dismissed."

Anna numbly nodded and walked as quickly as she could out the door. She couldn't even begin to wrap her mind around what had just happened. But she was positive that right after dinner she was going to look up Kinzley and his books. Just to see if the miss was right.

Ravenclaws are a rather curious bunch after all.

. . .

Her fingers skimmed the dusty spines as her lips silently mouthed the titles. Her eyes occasionally would scan farther than her hand and she would do a double take on what she had just read. She drifted languidly down the book-laden aisles, lost in her thoughts.

The smell of ink and parchment soothed and calmed her in a way nothing else ever had. It didn't matter what kind of day she had had. If she needed to escape people, books were there. If she wanted something to wind her down before bed, a book was always a good idea. She thrived on relaxing with a well-written novel or searching deep amongst the tomes for the answers to the multitude of questions she constantly thought of.

She wondered idly if the little third year Ravenclaw would come tonight and read up on Kinzley. The girl definitely had potential. She didn't even mind if the Ravenclaw students didn't complete the assignments in the proper way as long as they understood most of the information.

Her eyes landed on a large, dusty codex. She reached both her arms up to pull the book down. Her hands wouldn't cooperate however. She reached again. Her fingers spasmed and her arms twitched uncontrollably for a moment.

She pulled her hands down to eye level and inspected them closely. When her fingers started to shake, she clenched them tightly together. A sense of unease arose as her hands started twitching as well. She tried to keep them close together so that the amount of shaking would be lessened but it was useless.

Her legs twitched now and she struggled to stay on her feet. She slipped a bit and tried to regain her balance. She fell heavily against the bookshelves. The spasms in her arms worsened as she labored to grasp her wand.

Her fingers gripped the hard wood and she quickly muttered, "_Expecto Patronum_." A silvery little otter sprung up and danced around her in a slightly confused and concerned manner.

"Go get Fred. Tell him I'm- library."

The otter nodded and scurried quickly away. She waited until the creature disappeared from sight and then let herself collapse to the floor as her body continued to move itself without her consent.

. . .

Anna and her friend Timotheus were searching for Kinzley when they heard a slight thump from the aisle to the left of them. Exchanging curious glances, the two peeked around the edge of the bookcase to see their DADA teacher compulsively jerking and trembling on the floor.

"Go get Madam Pomfrey," Anna said as she rushed to Professor Greene's side. She threw herself down on her knees and tried to remember everything she had read last week about people who were seizing. She managed to twist Hermione onto her side but then froze. What came next? She couldn't remember and started hyperventilating.

The doors burst open as Fred flew in with the Marauders and the Head Girl and two other seventh year Gryffindor girls. Evans pulled Anna away and kept her arms around the girl while Fred lifted Hermione's head into his lap and forced his fingers in between her lips as she struggled to breathe. The hand unoccupied by her mouth massaged her jaw and attempted to loosen her muscles.

Gradually, her shoulders and neck relaxed. When he figured she could breathe again, he removed his hands and gently rubbed her temples and forehead before working his way down her neck and to her upper arms.

The sharp tremors slowly calmed down and after another three minutes, completely stopped. Hermione was still trembling though and Fred easily pulled her into his lap. He rubbed her back and spoke quietly to her. It felt like ages but eventually her body was still again.

Remus and Sirius leaned forwarded slightly to hear what Fred was still murmuring to the deathly pale girl.

"Hush, love, it's all right, you're all right, I've got you. Freddie's here and he's not going anywhere. Don't worry, love, you're fine. That's it, take a deep breath, see you're feeling better already. Shh, my brave little Mione, you're ok. I won't let anything happen. I've got you." He repeated the words over and over until Hermione seemed to believe them.

Her fingers were twisted in his shirt and her face hid in his neck. Fred Weasley had her, she was ok. Whatever happened, it was okay. Fred said he'd be there and Fred didn't lie to Hermione. She was going to be okay.

Madam Pomfrey suddenly arrived and immediately began casting diagnostic tests. The nine students shuffled out the way but stayed close enough so that they could see and hear what was happening.

The lights from the spells began changing colors rapidly. The nurse's eyes grew wide and she looked up at Fred fearfully.

"How long?" she asked hoarsely. Remus and Lily exchanged a confused glance before turning to James and Sirius. They shrugged; they assumed she was asking about the tremors.

Fred however seemed to know that the nurse was asking something entirely different. He looked down at the exhausted girl still clutching him. "Far longer than anyone else ever has," he whispered. He pulled her closer to him. "We don't know for sure, but she was missing for a solid two weeks at one point and we don't know how long they had her."

Sirius felt a deep sense of unease. He had been very curious about his teachers but seeing Madame Pomfrey's shattered expression made him think maybe he didn't want to know anything else about the two.

The nurse rubbed a hand over her face. "Bring her to infirmary for the night. I'll give her some potions to help with the muscle tears she managed to reopen and I'll heal what I can." She met his eyes fiercely. "What happened to the person who cursed her?"

Fred grinned. It was not a delightful sight. "My mother took care of her."

"Good." And with that Madame Pomfrey swept out of the room.

Fred looked to each of the students. "If I hear of one word of this spreading, you will not enjoy the rest of your year," he said quietly.

Remus spoke for all of them. "That won't be a problem, sir. What happened to her?"

Fred stood up, adjusting his hold on Hermione as he did. "The better question would be what hasn't happened to her."

. . .

The next day Remus was surprised to see Hermione walking into the Great Hall like nothing had happened. He watched her closely. She was eating a little better than the last week or so, but she was still so thin.

She seemed slightly tired and her movements were a little more abrupt than usual. When she got up to leave, he followed. James and Peter protested, but gave up when they saw he wasn't listening.

He caught up to her near where the first years were having Transfiguration. He reached out to grab her arm and had to duck as a stinging hex suddenly flew at him.

She looked absolutely unapologetic as she watched him straighten himself. She raised an eyebrow. "Can I help you, Mr. Lupin?"

He snorted. She didn't look like she was interested in helping him in the least. "No, I just wanted to make sure you were okay after your episode," he answered carefully.

She didn't flinch nor did she look away at his subtle probe. "I'm quite fine, thank you. Anything else?"

He shuffled and stuck his hands in his pockets. "I saw your patronus. When you sent for West. I was talking to him about those canary things he gave us the other day. I asked Lily about it last night after… well, after."

Her expression softened slightly. "And what did Miss Evans have to say?"

Remus swallowed. "She said that patronuses were only able to be cast when thinking of your happiest memory."

"Are you nervous because we're covering this in class today or is it something else?"

He didn't know why but for some reason, every time he was around Hermione he just couldn't be his usual confident self. Her gaze always seemed to see far deeper into his soul than she had the right to and he knew she wasn't afraid to call him on his shit. His walls were never let down, she just smashed right through them. Even when he wasn't aware that he had walls up.

Like now.

"What if my memories aren't happy enough?"

She looked at him askance. "What?"

"What if my memories aren't happy enough? What if not a single happy thing comes to mind and I can't produce one?"

Hermione's face scrunched up in annoyance. "Are you a complete idiot?" she demanded. Her hands were on her hips and her gaze was furious.

"What- no, I just-"

"You have three brothers who would do anything for you. You have been welcomed into one of the most loving homes you could ever hope to come across. You have a mother and father figure who treat you as their own. You have housemates that look up to you and teachers invested in you," she hissed. "And you dare to say that you have no happy memories?"

"How do you know that?" he demanded. "Nobody knows I live with the Potters except-"

"I'm a teacher, you fool. First thing I did was read all of the students files."

Remus felt his temper flare up. "Then you should know all about who I am."

She snorted. "The world isn't made up of Dark and Light. Your chosen circumstances are different than those forced upon you. Who the hell cares about how you were treated before coming here? You chose a family here for yourself, and nothing can taint that unless you let it." She poked him in the chest. "Someone who was miserable wouldn't be able to laugh as you do. When you go to cast your patronus, pick a deep memory. One that made you feel loved and safe. One that made you feel acceptance. You're not defined by your childhood, Remus."

She stalked away and muttered to herself, her mood thoroughly dark.

Remus watched her go then turned to head to his common room. He almost ran smack dab into Professor McGonagall.

"Sorry, Professor!" he said, false cheer flittering in his voice.

The Professor was having none of it however. "Do watch yourself, Lupin. And you should know, she was absolutely correct in what she said. I trust you'll have a good day." And with that she strode down the hall to her classroom.

"Mr. Lupin," she called over her shoulder.

"Yes, Professor?"

"I do hope your friends haven't forgotten that your essays that are due in four hours."

_Shit_.


	8. Chapter 8: What the Duck

Flick.

"_Expecto-_"

Swish.

"_Patronum_!"

Nothing. Not even a sliver of silver.

He sighed. This was impossible. Try as he might, he just couldn't think of anything happy enough to produce a patronus. He glanced to his left to see a frustrated Sirius. At least he wasn't alone.

"Don't worry about it. First time is always the hardest," a cheerful voice sounded directly behind him.

"Bloody hell- Professor!" Remus exclaimed.

Fred laughed. "Not a professor, Lupin. Now, tell me. What memories are you using as your base?"

Remus shrugged. "Just moments with my family. Holidays and the like."

"Black?"

"That one time I beat Evans on a practical exam and didn't even have to cheat to do it."

Fred raised his eyebrows at that, but didn't ask questions. "And you think that those are your happiest times?"

Sirius shrugged. "I dunno. I was pretty happy at the time so it seemed like a good place to start."

"Here's the thing with casting a patronus: it has to be your absolute most happy moment. A time when you felt absolutely secure and safe and you feel content every time you look back on it. It's a memory that gets you through the darkest of times and you feel like you have no hope left-"

"It's a memory that gives you something to fight for," Hermoine said from the other side of Sirius. "Your chosen memories aren't working because those aren't times that you want to protect or be remembered for."

"So what memories do you use?" Remus asked curiously. She never smiled, never laughed. She didn't seem to get pleasure out of anything in life. He wasn't even sure if she even had good memories.

She was quiet for a moment, watching the other students. She debated answering but finally said, "The first time I cast it, my memory was when I discovered I had magic."

Sirius traded a slightly confused look with Remus. "How was that strong enough?"

Her eyes flicked to them and then Fred. "It was the first time I felt like I belonged somewhere."

Sensing she was about to shut down, Fred jumped in. "The first time I successfully managed to do it was when my twin and I managed to make some of our products work for our shop and we accidentally tested them on our mother."

Hermione quirked an eyebrow. "You never told me that it was your mum. I always assumed it was Ron."

Fred grinned. "Most people do."

"Huh." She turned back to the boys. "Think of something else and try again."

Try as they might neither was able to produce anything more than a small shower of silver sparkles.

Hermione clapped her hands loudly. "All right, class. Listen up! Your assignment for the week is to try to produce a patronus. Some of you won't be able to. Don't worry about that. A patronus is an extremely difficult bit of magic to produce. Those of you who can form any sort of patronus by Friday are guaranteed twenty house points each. Dismissed."

. . .

"Fred, something's been bothering me," Hermione said suddenly as the last student left for the day.

He looked up from where he was straightening a pile of essays on the muggle war tactics in the 1500s. "Yeah? What's that?"

Her fingers tapped in an uneven rhythm as she thought. "You know how we just kind of appeared here?"

"Kind of hard to forget…"

"Not what I meant. I mean how we landed _here_. In Hogwarts. Instead of at the front gates."

He stopped his shuffling movements. "Hermione, it was just a misapparation. It happens."

She snorted. "Not without splinching. People with our experience don't just randomly apparate to places they didn't mean, Fred. And people don't just apparate into Hogwarts either. So how did it happen?"

"I would like to know that as well, Miss Greene."

Fred and Hermione snapped to attention, wands at the ready, when they realized it was Professor McGonagall.

"Professor McGonagall," Hermione answered coolly. "Would you happen to have any ideas as to why we were able to breach the wards that Hogwarts should have in place?"

"I can guess a few things," the Professor said. She pointed her wand at them. "Why don't you start by telling me the truth about where you're really from?"

Fred and Hermione shared a look. "Excuse me?"

McGonagall snorted. "Please. We haven't had an extreme problem with rogue wizards in years. And we especially haven't had problems with them torturing wizards and witches to the point the both of you were when you appeared here." She gestured with her wand. "And while both of you have excellent spellwork, upon close inspection, I can see the faint ripples of multiple glamours applied on top of each other."

Hermione smirked slightly. Of course McGonagall would notice something like that. She was the Transfiguration teacher and she was the one who originally taught Fred and Hermione how to hide the charms in the first place.

"So the reason you haven't killed us is…?" Fred asked in a mildly curious voice. Luckily, only Hermione noticed the slight tremor at his question.

"The only reason I haven't brought my concerns before Dumbledore," McGonagall stressed the _not killing_ part. "The only reason is simply because I can't find the man anywhere."

Fred snorted. "He's never where you need him to be."

Her eyes narrowed. "And you would know about that how?"

Hermione stepped in before Fred could stutter out an excuse. "We've just noticed lately that any time we'd like to talk to him about something in regards to our students we can't find him."

"Miss Greene, I don't know that you've noticed but I do not take very well to being lied to."

Hermione's lips twitched into a grimace. "Oh, professor. You have no idea how well I know that." She took a deep breath. "Which is why it pains me slightly to do this."

McGonagall was confused for a moment when the girl seemingly disappeared. Next thing she knew, her wand was knocked out of her hand and Hermione had her own wand pressed to the older woman's temple.

"Relax, professor," Hermione said quietly. "I'm not going to hurt you. I just need you to forget for a little while."

"What-"

"_Obliviate_." And the professor crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"Hermione!" Fred exclaimed as he ran to the woman. "You can't just go around _obliviating_ people!"

Her hands hit her hips. "What did you expect me to do?" she snarled. "I cannot continue to lie to a woman I respect more than anyone, and I also cannot just expect her to stop asking questions where we're concerned. It's not like I didn't think this through, Fred!"

He saw her hands clench her shirt in an attempt to stop her shaking. He watched her closely. Her tremors were beginning again and her eyes looked- not quite haunted. Her eyes were flat. Almost like they were- they were dead. Her face was set in an emotionless mask.

He stood slowly and walked over to her. Gently, he reached down and took both her hands in his and rubbed his thumbs over her knuckles, his eyes never leaving hers. Gradually her shaking stopped. She relaxed her tense shoulders and allowed herself to rest her forehead against his chest.

"What aren't you telling me?" he asked quietly.

After a moment of silence, she whispered, "I _obliviated_ my own parents, Fred." She pulled herself away from him and crossed her arms in front of her. "So don't act like I don't know what I'm doing. I probably know more about memory charms than anyone alive right now."

He pursed his mouth together and said nothing. She was right. She would know more than anyone. Hermione Granger did nothing without reason and she especially did nothing without all the facts. If she erased her own parents memories- of what he assumed were of her and her own childhood- she had a good reason. She knew the consequences.

"All right," he said finally. He glanced down at McGonagall. "What are we doing about her?"

. . .

McGonagall opened her eyes slowly. Where was she?

Pale light streamed in through a white curtain. She moved her head over and saw the familiar bedside chairs and table of the infirmary. How did she end up here?

She searched her memories but all she could remember was last talking to Greene and West.

"Minerva! How are you feeling?" Madame Pomfrey said as she bustled up to the bed.

"I feel rather tired but I'm not entirely certain how I ended up in here?"

"Oh! You were talking to those new youngsters, Greene and West, when you collapsed. You've been overworking yourself again, Minerva. Don't think that just because of your position you can skip out on the rest you need. Here have this pepper up potion."

McGonagall tossed the potion back just as the curtains swished to the side.

"Professor, we're glad to see you're up," Hermione greeted. Fred nudged her to the side and stepped in as well. "How are you feeling?"

"A little fuzzy," McGonagall said slowly. Something felt off but she couldn't place what it was. "Why can't I remember talking to you two before I passed out?"

"Well, you did hit your head rather hard when you fell," Fred supplied helpfully.

She pursed her mouth tightly. "I had no reason to seek you out. What were we discussing?"

"You were wondering if we knew if Dumbledore had returned," Hermione said.

McGonagall didn't know how but she instantly knew that Hermione was lying. Since she couldn't pinpoint what it was that made her believe so, she didn't mention it. She would have to think of it more when her head didn't feel so stuffy.

Fred patted her bed. "Well, we just wanted to check on you so we'll be going now. Get some rest!"

Hermione nodded her head. "Good evening, professor."

. . .

"That," Fred announced as they walked down the hallway, "was absolutely dreadful. She didn't believe us at all."

Hermione snorted. "She didn't need to. She just needed to stay off our backs for a bit till we figure out some answers." She jerked her head to the left. "I'm heading down to the library again to research the apparation issue. You coming?"

He sighed. "You know, as much as I love searching for one single line of helpful information amongst thousands of ridiculously dusty tomes, I think I'm going to have to pass on this one. Some of the boys needed help on a project."

She glanced sharply at him. "Make sure your _project_ doesn't involve testing on the first and second years."

"Sure. You can hex my bits if you find out I did."

She sniffed delicately. "I'm not going anywhere near your bits, thank you very much."

"You would love my bits-"

"Finish that sentence and you won't have any bits."

"Fine. See you at dinner?"

"Eh, maybe."

"Hermione."

"Fine."

. . .

Fred stepped out from the shadows of the darkened passageway where he was hiding. He tsked disapprovingly as the four boys appeared. "What have you to say for yourselves?"

Sirius was the first to recover. "What are you talking about, professor? We're just on our way to the kitchens for a bite to eat!"

Fred raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Yeah, sure you were. That's why you're taking the passage that leads from the dungeons to the Astronomy Tower instead of the one over by the fifth level." He snorted. "First rule of lie club: don't get caught in a lie."

"Lie club?" James asked skeptically.

"Yeah. You know, the secret society of liars that we all join when caught by a teacher where we weren't supposed to be. And don't let Hermione hear anything about that because she's already threatened to hex my bits today."

Sirius sighed. "You know, it's quite unfortunate that such a pretty girl has such a violent streak."

Fred eyed him for a moment. He felt vaguely uncomfortable with the idea of any of these boys finding Hermione pretty. He comforted himself with the reminder that Hermione would squash them all like bugs.

"Anyway," he said. "I told Hermione that we were working on a project this evening."

"What kind of project?" Remus asked cautiously. Fred had a glint in his eyes that was far from innocent.

Fred smirked. "The kind that has potential. Also, you get to pull one over all four houses with the excuse that you were with me all evening."

The boys glanced at each other.

"We're in."

"Great. We're going to need that muggle bubble gum, six of my dungbombs, a lot of charms, and thirty-six ducks."

James had been about to rush off when he stopped dead. "What do we need ducks for?"

Fred waved his hand at him. "It's all rather vague at the moment. I'm working out how to involve them. I'm sure it'll come together when we start working on it." He clapped his hands. "Hop to it, gentlemen. We have approximately an hour before dinner. Go, go, go."

Four hours, nine minutes, and twenty-two seconds later, the five of them were dashing down the hall towards the library, a long string of ducks following them loudly.

"I thought I told you to only charm the third years and up!" Fred said irritatedly.

"We thought the firsties could use a Marauder style welcome to Hogwarts!" James replied.

"Hermione's going to kill me. Quick into the library. We can slam the doors and keep the ducks out!"

Forty-three seconds later, the five dashed into the library and slammed the doors. They leaned against the doors and laughed breathlessly.

Violent swearing could be heard across the giant room. "FREDERICK, WHAT THE HELL ARE THE BLOODY DUCKS DOING IN THE MIDDLE OF MY RESEARCH?!"

Fred paled. "See ya, boys!"

And with that he disappeared before anyone could say anything, leaving the boys to face the furious Hermione.

. . .

After leaving Fred to work on his _project_, Hermione settled herself in a secluded alcove near the restricted section. She had surrounded herself with every book that mentioned time travel as well as several books that discussed the magic of Hogwarts.

She was just reading about the effects of the new moon and solstices when she felt a prickling all down her spine. She palmed her wand and spun out of her chair only to see the slightly terrified face of the little Ravenclaw girl- what was her name, Anita? Allyson? Anna.

They eyed each other for a good moment. Hermione sighed and holstered her wand. "Did you need something?"

"Um, yes, miss, if you're not too busy," Anna stuttered.

Hermione motion for her to explain as she sat back down. Anna took this as an invitation to sit as well, and she did so gingerly, seemingly ready to flee.

"Well, it was this essay you assigned us for next week. I don't understand the muggle war we're supposed to be researching."

Hermione raised her eyebrow. "Did I assign the War of Roses to your grade?"

"Yes, miss."

She sighed. "Let me see where your essay is at and we can go from there."

After working with Anna for forty minutes and ironing out the issues with the essay, Hermione realized that if they didn't hurry they were going to miss dinner. Teacher and student walked together towards the Great Hall.

"Thank you so much, Miss Hermione!" Anna said enthusiastically. "Is it ok if I finish my studying tonight at your table in case I have other questions?"

Hermione eyed the little girl. Why the hell was she so comfortable with her all of a sudden? All she did was correct her homework. She shook her head. "I suppose. But don't interrupt me too often. I have my own things I'm researching."

Anna skipped happily into dinner. Miss Hermione wasn't nearly as scary as she thought.

Hermione noticed Fred looking thoroughly pleased with himself and decided for her mental health she wouldn't ask why. She managed a few more bites than normal and excused herself. On her way back to the library, she stopped by the Ravenclaw table. Several students were alarmed that she was there which amused her slightly.

"Anna, I'm heading back now. Don't take too long."

"Yes, miss!"

When Anna joined her twenty minutes later, she had with her a fourth year Hufflepuff, two third year Ravenclaws, a second year Gryffindor, and three first year Slytherins. Hermione's eyebrows shot up.

"What the hell-"

"They saw us talking and asked if you were helping me with homework and I said yes and then they asked if they could come too and it's not too much trouble right?" Anna said in a nervous rush.

Hermione let out an annoyed sigh. "Fine. Sit and work. Only ask me questions when you absolutely cannot figure out the answers yourself." The students quickly made themselves comfortable and pulled out their assignments.

She went back to her books. On occasion, a timid student would ask for her help, and she would begrudgingly give it. Then she would return to her own studies.

Just as they were wrapping up their study session, an immense amount of quacking and squawking could be heard heading quickly in their direction. Suddenly, a whirlwind of what later were confirmed to be thirty-six ducks blew through and hysterical laughter and slamming of doors were heard.

The ducks were everywhere. They very meticulously tore all of her careful notes she had made throughout the evening and promptly ate the pieces.

"FREDERICK, WHAT THE HELL ARE THE BLOODY DUCKS DOING IN THE MIDDLE OF MY RESEARCH?!"

She stormed over to where the four Marauders cowered against the doors to the library. "Where is he?" she hissed.

"We don't know, we swear!"

"He just disappeared!"

She snarled and threw her clenched fist into the wall right next to Remus's head. To their astonishment, the wall slid over two feet. She stomped down the passage and within moment returned with an overly apologetic Fred.

"Hermione, love, you don't understand! The boys needed me. I didn't prank any first years just like I promised!"

"I don't give a damn. Get rid of these ducks and get me back my papers!" She shoved him toward her alcove. Turning around, she told the Marauders, "Fifty points from Gryffindor for destruction of peace in a study environment." Before they could protest that it was Fred's idea, she continued, "And detention for all of you for personal harassment of a teacher. My office, tomorrow night at nine."

"But Fred-"

She ruthlessly cut them off. "I'm very well aware of Fred. And he's going to pay for that as well. Now go to your dorms." When they made no move to do as she said, she ground out, "For every second you stay here, you get an extra detention-"

Before she could finish, the boys were gone. She spun back around just in time to pull the Hufflepuff boy away from the clutches of the duck holding him hostage. She gently ushered the younger students out the door. "Get to your dorms. It'll be curfew soon."

As soon as they were gone, she stunned every duck she saw and vanished them to Black Lake. When all that was left was a pile of half eaten papers and a beak-bruised Fred, she took a deep breath to calm herself in the sudden silence. When she spoke it was in a terrifyingly quiet voice.

"You are in so much trouble."


	9. Chapter 9: Conversations and Cakes

Hermione was Fred's least favorite person to anger.

Ninety percent of the time, she was his favorite person to be around. She was kind, polite, and well-mannered. She was always willing to lend a hand with homework or help find a rare book in the library. When he and George were stuck on a prank potion or having troubles with a product's charms, she was perfectly happy to look over their work –as long as they didn't test the pranks on first and second years. She was a determined, focused, highly skillful girl. She could take a joke and she knew how to keep the peace between people. She never wavered from what she believed and knew to be right.

All of these were qualities that Fred found to be highly favorable in a friend. However, Hermione had a slight dark side that very few every truly saw.

Hermione Granger was absolutely ruthless. She was willing to throw away any ounce of kindness and politeness once she believed the situation called for it. If she found out that Fred and George had been bothering the younger students, it didn't matter what their excuses were, she immediately would dock house points and give them detention. All of her determination and focus were a force to be reckoned with when she saw injustice.

Before she had even completed first year, she had set a teacher on fire. She had already begun to master wandless magic when that Cormac kid pissed her off. Fred had taken extra care around her for weeks after he found out that she had _confunded_ him while he was flying. She had disappeared from all of the magical world for years, and not even the best Aurors and dark wizards could find her and the boys. She kept the most well-known journalist in jar as a bug. She permanently scarred several people for caving under pressure and going against her. She wasn't afraid to use physical violence when her words and hexes weren't getting through. And he was pretty sure she had something to do with the disappearance of that nasty pink "teacher".

Yes, in Fred's mind Hermione Granger was not to be angered.

So he was completely unashamed to say that he very nearly wet himself as she stood expressionless in front of him. If he had been thinking properly, he never would have tried to hide in the library in the first place. But he had been caught in the rush of a truly good prank for the first time in ages.

He sat there with the most repentant expression he could manage and tried not to imagine what kind of punishment she was going to make him suffer through.

"Fred," she said very, very quietly in a very, very careful voice. "Why the bloody hell were there ducks in the library?"

"We were working on a…project?"

Her eyes met his in a very flat stare. "A project. Wonderful. Well, your next project can be repairing all of my notes on time travel and Hogwarts magic. There are two scrolls and four extra pieces of parchment full. I want all of it."

He gaped at her. "Hermione, I don't even know the spells needed for that!"

"You better get busy then."

Knowing he was getting off fairly easily, he reined in his instinct to sigh and headed to the stacks of books to find the spells he would need.

"Fred."

He turned back to see Hermione pointedly not looking at him. "Yeah?"

"How did pranking go?"

"What? The prank was successful even though the ducks didn't cooperate at all-"

"Not what I meant," she interrupted briskly. "I mean, it's been ages since you've been able to do light hearted pranks. And this is the first time you've ever pranked someone without George being involved somehow." She lifted her head slightly.

The desperation hit him like a punch to the gut and was just as surprising. "Hermione," he said, choosing his words carefully. "Are you asking me if I'm ok? Or are you asking how was I able to do something without my twin?"

She flinched. "Both? Neither?" She ran a hand through the short mop of curls she had left. "Never mind. It was dumb."

He scoffed. "You've never been dumb in your life. Now, yes, it was weird pranking without George. And I miss him more than I let on. But it's time for me to start making people smile again. The war in our time is over. I don't know what it's like there now, but I do know that George and I are going to reopen our shop and I want to be fully prepared for when we get back. I just keep reminding myself that he's waiting for me. So yes, I am ok."

"That's.. not quite it," Hermione said. She struggled with her next words. "It's just, we've been here a month. And you're still the same as ever. You can laugh and joke and somehow everyone still loves you."

Fred didn't quite see where she was going with this. "O…k…?"

She made a noise of frustration. "Fred, you're the same. How are you still the same?"

The desperation in her eyes suddenly made sense. "Hermione, I'm not the same. I can act the same, but trust me, inside –I'm not the same always."

"But you are! You're Freddie. You have the occasional nightmare and you're fine by morning!" She buried her face into her hands. "Why do I still see everyone broken and bleeding? Why do I still feel the pain of the curses? _Why can't I get better_?"

In four long strides he was in front of her, arms wrapped tightly around her. He didn't say anything, just held her. She wasn't crying; she just kept breathing in a jerky, uneven, shaky sort of way. He patted her back with one hand while his other cupped the back of her head and pressed her covered face into his chest.

When she had calmed down a moment, he said, "I don't have the answers for you, Hermione. But I do know that you were more deeply involved with the darkest part of the war than I or almost anyone else was. Your scars run deeper. You can't expect them to just disappear. It takes time to heal."

She pushed away from him. "That's the thing, Fred! I know all that! I know that it takes time and that I can't just be ok. But I'm so fucking tired. I just want to sleep at night. I just want to watch these kids interact with each other around the castle and not worry about whether this kid or that kid is going to embrace the darkness and try to kill me in a few years. It's all different and I can't fix any of it and I am bloody terrified to hell and back that we're stuck here!"

She flung herself down into the papers and books on the floor and buried her face into her hands again. Slowly Fred sank down beside her. He reached out and took one of her hands in his. Lacing their fingers together, he scooted close enough so that she could lean on him if she chose. She resisted, but after a solid five minutes, she turned herself into him.

"Hermione, I don't know what to tell you. Just, just remember what house you were sorted into. Gryffindor, yeah? House of the Brave. It's ok to be scared. You don't become brave just from not being scared. It's what you do in spite of being scared. So we just have to do what we can right now without affecting the future."

He nudged her slightly. "And I'll be here. I'll be right here the whole time. So don't let this break you. You'll be ok. You can get through this."

Hermione sighed deeply and stood. "C'mon, let's go. We have children and lessons to prepare for." She reached down and gave him a hand up.

"My little breakdown doesn't mean you're off the hook for the duck thing. I want my notes by Thursday evening."

"Damn."

. . .

Snape watched from the shadowy alcove he had fallen asleep in. He had awakened to all the water fowl squawking near him and had been terrified to move out of his safe zone. He had been about to leave when suddenly Hermione told Fred he was in trouble.

Thinking that he could always use some blackmail on his pathetic excuses for teachers, he stayed.

The conversation that followed had left him with more questions than answers. He wasn't sure what he was going to do, since he couldn't exactly figure out what it was he could use as blackmail. But he was going to sleep on it and figure it out in the morning.

He really didn't fancy getting detention for something as silly as being held up by a small flock of ducks.

. . .

James crept down the hall as he carefully kept an eye out for teachers and prefects. He supposed that as he was Head Boy, technically prefects couldn't do anything to him that he couldn't change, but six years of dodging habits were hard to break in the month that they had been in school.

He tickled the pear and ducked into the hidden passage that led to the kitchens. Some would be surprised that he was alone, but even he needed a break from his rowdy friends. And Sirius was already well on his way to drunk when he left the Gryffindor common room.

Drunk friends weren't much fun unless he was drunk too, but as Head Boy that wasn't an option any more.

So tonight he was on his own and when on his own he went to the place where he always felt the most at home- the kitchens. As he stepped into the lit room, he could hear someone shuffling around metal pots and pans and cursing quietly. Very few students knew the kitchens, and all of them were hypothetically in bed.

He poked around a hanging rack of pans only to stop short. Standing at an island counter, covered in chocolate syrup and flour- was that cheese?- was his curly haired, short tempered Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"Ms. Greene?"

He barely ducked out of the way as a knife went sipping past him and a sharply commanded shield went up. He peered up above the counter he had hidden behind to see Hermione poised and ready to cast whatever spell necessary and a face as cold as ice.

He froze as their eyes met. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them again, she straightened and her face was as blank as usual.

"Help you with something, Potter?"

"Um," he said, not moving from his crouched position. "Is it safe to come out now or are you going to throw another knife at me?"

She looked behind him at the blade stuck in a cabinet door. "Oh, the house elves are not going to be happy about that." She turned back around and started moving bowls around again. "You can come out, Potter. I've no more knives within reach."

He slowly came around to her side. "So what are you doing?"

She didn't look up from her mixing bowl. "Well, I was going to make a cake, but I realized I don't actually know how to make one."

He peered down at her bowl. "So….what's in there?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. The elves got it. I just asked for the ingredients and then they left."

"So you're just throwing whatever you found in there and hoping for the best?"

"Eh, pretty much."

"Oh, Merlin."

She slid a glance his direction. The corners of her mouth were ever so slightly upturned. It was the closest he had ever seen her come to smiling.

"So, how's it going with Evans?"

He sighed. "Not so well. She's back to not even acknowledging me again."

"Hm."

He didn't know why he kept talking. Her response was hardly encouraging. But for some reason he just knew she would listen for tonight.

"She just, I don't know. I keep trying to get her to see that I've grown up and changed and everything, but she just ignores me even more. And she's never going to forgive me for the Snivellus incident or that one with her hair even though I swear it wasn't supposed to get her and she thinks that I'm childish and that pranks are stupid and it doesn't matter what I do she's never going to accept- OW!"

A wooden spoon full of some kind of chocolate goo smacked him in the face. He wiped the gunk out of his eyes and glared at Hermione who was merely raising an eyebrow at him.

"If it's really that hopeless then give up," she said bluntly. "Whining about it never helped anything. Either change your method of attack or move on."

"Attack? I'm not trying to attack her-"

"Well, maybe that's your problem," she said coolly. "Back off for a few weeks, treat her like every other girl. Kiss her outta nowhere." She went back to dumping her mix into a pan. "She'll notice you then."

James stared at her. She seemingly took no notice and kept right on putting her pan into the oven and setting a timer. When she started hand washing her dishes he finally snapped out of it. "You know you have magic, right?"

"Doing things muggle is soothing."

He pulled up a barstool and sat next to the sink as she kept scrubbing away. "So is that how you got West?"

She stopped and looked at him. "What?"

"Did you ignore him for weeks and then kiss him out of nowhere?" he asked. Maybe he could find out more about this bizarre teacher. He and the other Marauders had noticed how close the two were. There was no way there wasn't some sort of past history with them.

"Why the hell does everyone think that we're together?" Hermione grumbled under her breath. She dug her hands deep in the suds before replying. "Fred has never been easy to ignore. Any time he's around, all attention is on him. Haven't you noticed that in class or at meal times?"

James thought for a moment. "Now that you mention it, I don't always notice when he's missing, but I do notice when he's there."

Hermione nodded. "He's magnetic."

James' eyebrows shot up. "So you can't stay away?"

She snorted. "More like he won't leave me alone."

James leaned his elbows on the counter as she began drying. "How did you two meet any ways?"

"He was helping me look for a toad that escaped."

He wasn't sure what he was expecting but he was pretty sure that wasn't it. "So how did you looking for a toad get you two to become such good friends?"

He knew he had said something wrong the moment the words left his mouth. Her shoulders were tense and her hands clenched. Her jaw moved and she swallowed hard.

"I don't know why I'm saying this, especially to you, but Fred found me when no one else did. He brought me back out of something extremely painful and he was there for me when I pushed everyone else away." She met his eyes. Ghosts of a lifetime past flew through her haunted eyes and then suddenly, they were the calm brown they always were.

"What happened to you?" he asked breathlessly. There was something in her that made him keep asking her questions even though he knew she might not answer.

She snorted again. "What hasn't happened to me."

She ignored him for the rest of the time it took her cake to bake. When her timer dinged, she pulled it out and cast a cooling charm on it. Within moments, it was perfectly iced and a piece was shoved in his hand. He was halfway out the door before he realized what she had done.

"I'll find out about you one day, Hermione," he called over his shoulder. "You can't hide your secrets from a Marauder forever."

She waited until she heard the passage way slide closed again.

"Watch me."


	10. Chapter 10: Remus' Patronus

Friday finally rolled around. Hermione was relieved it was almost the weekend. For one reason, she was exhausted. Her emotions had been everywhere, especially in the last couple of days. She didn't like the raw feeling inside her chest that never seemed to loosen. She felt vulnerable and empty. She hated knowing that she had to rely on something as fickle as time before she would be better.

Secondly, ever since she kicked James Potter out of the kitchens, the Marauders wouldn't stop watching her. Perhaps in another life she would have felt complimented to have captured the attention of such attractive young men. But for a girl who had spent a good portion of her life balancing between life and death and doing her best to go unnoticed, it was unnerving. She couldn't say anything about it to them either unless she wanted to admit it bothered her. So she just sucked it up and dealt with it like the adult she was supposed to be.

Who was she kidding, she spent most of her evenings hiding in the library helping third years and under with homework- which brought her to her third reason for the anticipation for her weekend.

When the bloody hell did she start becoming _approachable_? Outside those ridiculous pranksters, students did not come to Hermione with their problems. Of any kind. Shit, she hadn't even been asked to help with her own friends' homework since the six months before she left Hogwarts. So when did eleven to fourteen year olds suddenly decide she was a good person to ask help from?

She didn't mind helping them. But she didn't know how to interact with such happy-go-lucky children. She struggled to remember the effect and importance of such silly little dramas between friends. She herself had always tried to stay out of it as much as possible, and she was already on the run by the time she was fifteen, almost sixteen. Keeping Harry-I-Have-a-Death-Wish-Potter alive was a full time job after all. Unbidden, images of all the times Harry, Ron, and herself had almost died began flashing through her mind.

The alarm she had placed on her wand buzzed, startling her from the dark turn her thoughts had taken. She shook herself and began gathering her books and papers together. She was going to get them home, even if it was the last thing she did.

. . .

Remus sat in the back of the classroom, Peter on one side and James and Sirius behind him. He kept twirling his quill in his fingers as he waited for class to begin. Today was the day they were to attempt to produce a patronus.

Despite all the practice he had done, he still could barely get a whisper of silver out. It was embarrassing. Even Sirius did better than that and he didn't have the happiest childhood either. He was mildly comforted by the fact that Peter couldn't produce one at all. He felt the teeniest bit guilty for being relieved by his friend's failure, but he couldn't help it.

Fred was standing in the middle of the room gossiping with the surrounding students, Slytherins and Gryffindors alike. It baffled Remus how he was able to converse so easily with both groups while also making them be civil to each other. He was pretty sure Fred was subtly setting up couples as well, but that might have just been his imagination.

Hermione briskly entered the classroom five minutes late with no explanations. Remus had also noticed that Hermione didn't waste her time giving excuses. She just did whatever she wanted and expected Fred to wait for her to begin. Which he did. Remus found that odd as well. Fred didn't seem like a pushover at all. So why did he always wait for Hermione to lead before making any sort of move?

Unless they were in love and then it all made sense, but those sorts of questions led to absolute silence and skillfully redirected conversations.

He suddenly realized that he had missed whatever it was Hermione and Fred had said to begin class. He glanced over, but Peter was even more spaced out than he had been. Peter had been acting odd lately as well, but he pushed that back to ponder over another time.

"Next Friday, we're going to be having class a little differently," Hermione announced. "I need to get few things past Dumbledore for approval, but plan on bringing your homework from other classes to the library at this time rather than coming here. Class will be held at ten o'clock at night down by Hagrid's hut, so you'll be using this time to get what homework you have for the weekend done."

Fred jumped in. "And it won't just be you lot," he grinned. "We're having all of our seventh and sixth years from all classes there."

Lily's hand shot up. At Fred's nod, she asked, "What are we going to be doing?"

"I'm so glad you asked that," Fred answered. "Remember the last ten or so essays on tactics and war strategies you all put only a half ditch effort into writing because most of it was on muggle events?"

Trepidation filled most of the students. They had all naively thought that Fred and Hermione wouldn't notice the lack of interest in their assignments. When the two hadn't said anything after the first two essays, all of the students just wrote however much they wanted and skimped on the research.

Fred gave them a toothy grin. It was razor sharp and the expression looked odd on his normally happy face. "You're going to be graded based on what you've learned through those assignments."

"But what if we didn't learn anything?" Rosier piped up from Slytherin side. "They're just muggles, what do they know?"

"Well, only about twenty years ago, they managed to embroil the entire world in a war over blood issues similar to the ones that a certain dark wizard seems to be promoting currently," Hermione stated bluntly. Her arms were crossed over her chest, her left leg crossed over her right as she leaned against the front of the desk. Fred had ignored the chair completely and was sitting cross-legged on top of the desk next to her.

She seemed as though she was about to say something more, but Fred elbowed her and she abruptly switched tactics.

"It doesn't matter whether you think it's ridiculous or not, you're still getting graded next Friday over practical implementation of the knowledge you gained through your homework. After all, what's the point of homework if you can't use anything you learn?"

Nobody seemed to have a good answer for that, though anyone could tell they weren't happy about being told they had to learn from muggles. From there, Fred took over and had them all form a line from the front to the back of the classroom as he vanished their desks again. Each student then attempted to produce a patronus.

Remus was four from the end, the rest of the Marauders were in front of him. James didn't seem nervous at all, and he was fooling around with Sirius while they waited their turns.

By the time they got to the front of the classroom, only two- Lily and Alice- had managed a full patronus and only nine had managed whispers of silver or half formed animals. James stepped up confidently.

"_Expecto Patronum_!"

A full stag erupted from his wand. He kept up his swirling motions of his wand and the deer became more and more substantial before beginning to prance around the classroom. He couldn't sustain it for very long, but it was by far the most impressive so far.

Fred whistled and high fived him. "Very nice, Potter."

James grinned and turned to Hermione, waiting to hear her praise.

She merely raised her eyebrow and said, "Twenty points."

He was vaguely disappointed, but comforted himself knowing it was just her way. He moved back to his seat to watch Sirius.

The dog that appeared was solid and frolicked around, but it wasn't quite as awe-inspiring as James' had been. Sirius was used to James being better than him at magic, but he had secretly been hoping to impress everyone. After all, a Black hadn't been able to produce a patronus in the last fourteen generations.

"Well done, Black."

His eyes snapped over to his teachers. It wasn't Fred who had spoken; it was Hermione. The same Hermione who hadn't said much more than "twenty points" to anyone who had succeeded. He was confused, but he also felt a strange warmth spread in his chest.

He grinned a cocky grin. "It's pretty good, eh?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't push it, kid. You can still do better."

He deflated a bit, but still kept his grin. "Whatever you say, professor."

"I'm not a professor. Go sit down, you're holding up the line."

Peter went next and failed miserably. He didn't seem to mind too much though. And then it was Remus' turn. He took a deep breath and tried to remember everything Hermione and Fred had told him about patronus'.

"_Here's the thing with casting a patronus: it has to be your absolute most happy moment. A time when you felt absolutely secure and safe and you feel content every time you look back on it. It's a memory that gets you through the darkest of times and you feel like you have no hope left-"_

"_It's a memory that gives you something to fight for. Your chosen memories aren't working because those aren't times that you want to protect or be remembered for."_

"_The first time I cast it, my memory was when I discovered I had magic."_

"_It was the first time I felt like I belonged somewhere."_

"_You're not defined by your childhood, Remus."_

He slowly exhaled and pulled up the memory that meant the absolute most to him. The one where he would do his whole life all over again the exact same way because it meant that he would have this one moment.

"_Expecto Patronum_."

He swirled his wand steadily around and around and around. Silver streamed out and flowed into a magnificent wolf. He didn't let himself feel disappointment, just kept swirling and pouring every thought and feeling pertaining to his memory into his spell.

When he finished, his wolf didn't prance or frolick. It simply bowed towards Hermione and Fred, who both inclined their heads in acknowledgement. When the wolf disappeared, Remus didn't look up from the ground. He felt his early worries come flooding back.

"I told you you could do it," Hermione's snarky tone cut right through his thoughts. His head rose and he stared blankly at her while she muttered, "What if my memories aren't happy enough, Merlin's left ass-"

"Hermione, remember the children," Fred interrupted cheerfully. "Twenty points, Lupin."

He stumbled back to his seat, James and Sirius both punched him in the shoulder and Peter merely sat grinning at him the whole time. The rest of the class passed in a blur. Remus couldn't have told anyone what happened during the last forty-five minutes, but for once he wasn't bothered by that at all.

He produced a patronus.

. . .

James could feel Lily Evans stare but forced himself to carry on his conversation with Sirius. The sparkle in the other boy's eyes told James plain and clear that he was waiting for his friend to crack. But James refused. He would not flirt with Lily Evans. He would not flirt with Lily Evans. He would not flirt with Lily Evans.

He had decided to try Hermione's method of seduction. And he hated everything about it. He had expected his friends to laugh at him when he told them what he was doing. He hadn't told them who gave him the advice though. For some reason, he felt that ought to stay secret for now.

The boys hadn't laughed. Sirius had nodded immediately while Remus looked thoughtful. They agreed to help him with this new plan. Operation Do Not Flirt With Lily Evans was coming along splendidly.

He hated it. So so much.


	11. Chapter 11: Mild Panic

Trees swayed in the gentle breeze. Branches could be heard creaking far above her head. Pale speckled moonlight barely illuminated. Her feet softly hit the hardened path. The surrounding blackness seemed even more dense and dark.

There are two different types of darkness.

One kind is a warm, comforting kind of darkness. It's the two o'clock in the morning darkness, the one where it's just you and the night and you feel at one with the universe. Usually, it is while surrounded by this calm and pleasant darkness that your philosophy of life is pondered upon and the secrets of the world become open to you. Sometimes, it's the feeling of peace after hours of stargazing. Or the time to regain your strength after a grueling day of dealing with people. It's restorative.

The darkness surrounding Hermione was not that kind of darkness.

She crept along down the forest trail. She hid in the deepest of shadows. She couldn't understand why her heart was beating so hard. Forests and shadows were hardly new experiences for her. But at the moment, her chest felt heavy. Her heart thudded so hard against her, trying to escape.

She began walking more quickly. She wasn't entirely certain where she was going, she just knew she had to get to whatever it was at the end of the path. But something wasn't right.

The farther along she went, the more thorns and roots popped up into her way. Brambles caught at her jeans and dug into her skin and vines slipped down from their places in the trees and wrapped around her arms and waist and her feet kept tripping up on the small plants and tree roots. She fought and she pulled and she strained against the plant life out to get her. The more she struggled the more desperate she became.

Finally she managed to get to the little hut at the end of the path. She pushed her way inside and found herself in the front parlor of Malfoy Mansion.

Fred stood by the fireplace. His hair was pulled tightly back. His robes were a deep black and in his hand was a small tumbler of what she assumed was whiskey. Lucius Malfoy stood beside him, a smug smirk on his face. He clapped Fred on the shoulder and pushed him slightly towards her. Fred set down his drink on the mantel. It was only when he started towards her that she say the white mask behind him.

She backed away, but the doorway was gone. She felt the hard wall behind her. Fred stopped inches from her. He reached out and caressed her faced gently.

"You didn't really think I truly wanted to be your friend, did you? You're just a plain little girl. Always bossing us around. You wouldn't even know how to function in society without me and the boys. Always on the outside, always by yourself. Without us, you're nothing. No one wants an awful little child like you. In fact, the world would be a much better place without you." He grinned an awful smile. His teeth were too sharp, his eyes too malicious. "Die, Hermione."

With every word he spoke, she felt a punch in the gut. She was positively nauseous. She forced herself to take deep breaths. This couldn't be Fred. This had to be a dream.

"You're right," he said, raising his wand. "I'm not Fred. I'm part of your deepest fears. So what do you think happens when we combine two of the things you're most scared of?"

"You're not Fred. This is a dream. Just another nightmare. You're not Fred," she began to chant over and over. Fred wouldn't hurt her, Fred wasn't a Death Eater, Fred wasn't really here. This is a dream, this is a dream, this is a dream _thisisadreamthisisadreamthisisadreamthisisadream_-

"_Crucio_!"

Hermione couldn't stop screaming.

. . .

"You really believe that this exercise will help our students prepare to fight the dark arts?" Dumbledore asked Fred curiously. He tapped the activity outline in front of him. "I'm not quite sure that this location is absolutely necessary-"

"Sir, with all due respect," Fred interrupted gently. "If they don't have any fighting ability whatsoever, they're never going to survive this coming war. Just dueling is not going to help them. They'll know the spells, but they won't know how to think on their feet. They won't know how to put what they've learned into practice. By placing them in an almost real life simulation of a war, we're teaching them all of these. Their essays are on war tactics, their duels in class teach them the spells, and in double classes we're working on building up their physical stamina. Eventually we're going to bring in muggle hand to hand fighting tactics."

"Hmm," Dumbledore said. He turned to his Deputy. "What do you think about this, Minerva?"

"I think it's preposterous! Who knows what they'll encounter out there! And what if they get hurt?"

Fred interrupted once more. "As you can see on page three, we've carefully laid out how we plan to deal with that. Each student will be magically tagged by Hermione. If anything happens to them physically, anything at all, Hermione and I will both be notified immediately. Since this activity will be outside Hogwarts walls, we can easily apparate right to the student in trouble. Madame Pomfrey has also agreed to set up a tent in case there are any serious injuries. We will also be tagging them so that we know exactly what spells are used. It's doubtful that they'll be something Hermione hasn't heard of, and if she's heard of a curse, she'll also know the counter-spell."

"What about the centaurs? What if they-"

"Hermione and I will be going to talk to them as soon as we get your seal of approval."

"What if-"

"Minerva," Dumbledore said quietly. Immediately, she quieted, but she was clearly not happy about it. "I think I will give you permission for this little adventure. If anything serious does happen, you will take full responsibility."

"Of course."

Dumbledore set aside his papers. "Now, since you're here, I thought we might discuss something else as well. Hogsmeade weekend is coming up next week. I'd like you and Ms. Greene to go as well as the students so that you can get a feel for the little village. We'll have another in October but I may need you to chaperone that weekend and I'd prefer it if you knew where you were going."

Fred grinned. "That sounds delightful."

. . .

"Hey, Potter! You seen Hermione anywhere?"

James looked up from the broom he was polishing. "Hey, Fred. Last I saw, she was helping some first years on Transfiguration homework in the library." He grinned. "She didn't look happy about it."

Fred chuckled. "She's been looking forward to the weekend. I bet she still stayed with them till they finished though."

James shrugged. "Eh, probably. Remus said she's been doing that a lot this week."

"That's actually her element. She lives and breathes books."

James shuffled his cloth around the broom bristles. As he cleaned he said, "You know I've been meaning to ask about that."

Fred raised an eyebrow and plopped on the ground next to him. "Ask about what?"

"Hermione and books. When we first met you, we thought you guys were just fighting freaks and you only knew attack and defense spells. But Remus said that in a few of those homework sessions she's been forced to have, she was full of all sorts of tips for every single class that the first through fourth years had questions about. And she knew where in the library to get the hardest to find piece of information."

"I'm not quite sure what your question is, Potter."

He paused his cleaning. "She's really smart isn't she."

Fred laughed long and hard. He couldn't stop for a solid minute. "She's very, very smart. She's saved my ass more times than I care to count with the random spells and things she remembers."

"I wish I had a memory like that."

Fred sobered a bit. "Don't let that memory of hers fool you. She's worked extremely hard to get where she is. She values her education. And if you ask her about it, she'll just snap at you for asking stupid questions and tell you to study. Hell, she'll probably have study timetables for you all by December for OWLS and NEWTS."

James was in the middle of packing up his supplies. "December? That's kind of early isn't it?"

"She takes education _very_ seriously."

"Merlin have mercy on our souls."

"Yep. Well, I'm off to go hunt her down. She's probably hiding in the restricted section or gone back to our rooms." He hopped up. "Oh, I'm sure you know that there's a Hogsmeade trip planned for next weekend correct?"

"Yeah, why? You wanna go with me and the boys?"

"Dumbledore gave us orders to go. Hermione is going to want to stop at a book shop so I'm going to need something to do for a couple of hours. If you all aren't busy, I might come bug you."

James grinned. "Feel free. Maybe we'll be able to dig something else out of you about your relationship with Hermione. Some adventure tales, yeah?"

Fred smirked. "Good luck with that, boyo."

. . .

He checked the library first. Gathered in a far corner that he knew Hermione liked sat seven first years from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. They were all digging deeply in their textbooks. He grinned. First years were adorable.

He strode up to them with the smile still in place. "Heya, kids. Whatcha studying?"

A tiny pixie of a girl barely looked up. "We're trying to figure out second level potions. Miss Hermione said we were all smart enough for it. So we're trying to prove her right!"

"That is an excellent goal. Mind you, even if you can't quite understand everything, she's not going to be disappointed in you. If anything, she'll be very impressed with your dedication and hard work."

"That's what she said too!" said a bouncy Ravenclaw boy. He grinned up at Fred. "She's the most amazingest teacher ever."

He chuckled. "Yes, yes, she is. I'm actually looking for her. Have you lot seen her around?"

The pixie girl looked up again. "She said we were thinking too loudly and that she would be back later this evening if we wanted to see her about anything. I think she went to your rooms. She had a really big stack of books on ancient magic with her."

"Hmm, maybe she's researching again. I better go make sure she sees the sun sometime today." He winked at the kids and waved over his shoulder as he walked off. "Luck studying!"

But none of them saw him because they were all nose deep in their books again.

. . .

As soon as he entered their common room, he could tell something was off. He paused just inside the door and thoroughly examined the room. There were a stack of books on the coffee table. Various parchment scrolls were scattered on and around the books and floor. Nothing else seemed out of place at all.

He stepped further into the room and peered over the back of the sofa. He saw Hermione curled into an impossibly tight ball, arms wrapped around herself. Her knuckles were white from her fingers squeezing her arms. Her face was scrunched into a fierce frown.

He went to wake her, but paused. While this was the expression she usually had when she was fighting off a nightmare, something was different. She was so, so still. Hesitantly, he reached out and gently shook her shoulder.

Her eyes snapped open and her breath hitched and her fist came flying up as she scrambled to get away. She was hyperventilating and she wandlessly blasted him across the room. He hit the wall hard as she threw a shield up. Her hands were outstretched as if warding him off.

He groaned and picked himself slowly up. He crawled over as close to her as he could. "Mione, it's me," he said quietly. "Just Freddie. I'm not gonna hurt you, Mione."

"No! Go away!" she gasped. Her voice was raspy and uneven. A wild look had entered her eyes and she seemed even more panicked than her last attack. "You're not real. You're not real. You're not real."

"Mione, I'm real. I'm right here. Calm down, it's ok."

"You're not Fred! Don't come any closer! Fred wouldn't hurt me!"

"I'm not hurting you. I swear! See, look. I'm putting my wand-" He pulled his wand out and bent to set it out of reach.

As soon as he pulled his wand out though, Hermione completely lost it. She blasted him against the wall again and _screamed_.

She screamed until she could no longer hold her shield up. She crumpled down into a ball and rocked herself back and forth. Her anguish could be literally felt as she just screamed and screamed and screamed and, dear Merlin, please somebody just help her stop.

She finally blacked out from lack of oxygen. Her muscles were twitching for several minutes but Fred didn't dare touch her out of fear of waking her again. When he was sure she wasn't going to wake for a while, he carefully levitated her to her bed.

He pulled off her shoes and jacket and very cautiously transfigured her clothes into something he had seen her wear around his house. He thought they were called "sweatpants" but wasn't sure. All he knew was that when she wasn't feeling well, she always wore them and overly huge sweaters made from the same material. He tucked her into her covers and placed her wand on her nightstand within easy reach.

He lit a candle across her room so that when she woke it wouldn't be to complete darkness. He also spelled it so that nothing else would catch fire while she slept. He quietly left her room and cracked her door open.

When he entered the common room again, the first thing he noticed was the mess. Papers and scrolls were everywhere and there were two Fred-sized dents in the walls. He sank exhaustedly down into a loveseat.

"_Expecto Patronum_."

A silver fox bounced up to him, waiting its orders.

"Go get Madame Pomfrey and let her know that Hermione's episodes are getting worse."

The little fox nodded and then zipped away.

Fred dropped his head into his hands. What was he going to do now?


	12. Chapter 12: Forest Run

"I'm _fine_, Fred. I don't need to see Madame Pomfrey so just leave it alone!"

"Hermione, you're not 'fine'. You look awful."

"Thanks ever so much, Fred. Now get out of the way. We have class."

"Hermione, you can't just- _oof_!"

Hermione stalked into their classroom full of seventh year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. The students watched her warily. Her eyes were tinged with dark purple shadows and her mouth had an unnatural pinched look to it. Her face was drawn and more than a little haggard and she seemed to be walking more stiffly than usual.

Fred walked in after her scowling. His left hand rubbed his side gently. Seeing Hermione in a bad mood was relatively normal. Seeing Fred in a bad mood was outright scary.

"Miss?" a hesitant Hufflepuff girl asked. "Are you feeling all right?"

Hermione hissed softly and glared at Fred. "This is your fault," she muttered at him. Turning back to the class, she said shortly, "I'm fine. Now pull out your essays for collection."

As soon as everyone had their essays out, she levitated them to her. Usually she would walk around and collect them, but her muscles were so tense and she had a tension headache building. There was no way she was wasting movements today.

Fred said nothing, just watched her with a slightly disapproving look. He contributed to the class as they began teaching various blasting spells and counters. But it was obvious to everyone the tension between the two.

. . .

Hermione slowly made her way to the Great Hall for lunch. She had started feeling a bit more hungry than usual last week, but now she felt nauseous at just the thought of food. She couldn't tell Fred though. He was already feeling put out with her.

She didn't understand why he thought she needed to see Madame Pomfrey. It was just a bad dream. He didn't need to freak out so badly about it. She'd been having nightmares for years. They weren't just going to stop any time soon. Being so exhausted and sore was a new one, however.

Because her body was so tense and her head was pounding, she was extra sensitive to the slight push on her mind. She shut it out and continued to lunch. She could deal with an experimental student later. Right now, if she didn't get in there and force food down her throat, Fred was going to strongly consider stunning her and take her to the infirmary.

The light probe came again but stronger. She whirled around and stalked over to a shallow alcove. She shoved herself into the student's face and grabbed him by the collar.

"Severus Snape, if you continue to try to get into my mind," she said very, very quietly. "I will not react as kindly as you think I would."

He hissed back at her. "You shouldn't have been able to feel that!" He jerked himself away from her and into the now-empty halls.

Her glared turned even colder. "I've spent years building up my mind walls. Nothing can get passed them. And if I shouldn't have been able to feel it, does that mean that you've been practicing on other students?"

He sneered. "I don't have to tell you what I've been up to."

"Oh, yes you do. If you've been practicing forced mind reading, you're no better than a mind rapist and that is against Ministry Code 476 and so help me Merlin if you do not answer me right now, I'll find out the answers I need by myself."

"Fine. I swear on Merlin I did not force it on anyone."

"Did you threaten them?"

"No."

"Fine. Stay out of my head, Snape. You wouldn't like what you found there if I let you in."

"I'll find out your secrets one day, Greene."

She snorted as she walked away. "Yeah, you do that." She waved a hand over her shoulder. "But you'll never get Evans back if you keep up that way of thinking."

"What the bloody hell-"

But he never finished his question because Hermione had entered the Great Hall and let the doors slam without giving him a second glance.

Fred gave her an even stare as she sat down next to him. All of the scents from the meal just made her stomach roll even more. She forced down the acid bubbling in the back of her throat. She could eat something. She would eat something.

She felt Fred's eyes on her as she began to cut up an apple. There was no way she was going to try to bite into it normally. Her mouth and jaw were beginning to ache from her headache and the constant clenching of her teeth.

She wished Fred couldn't read her as well as he did. His big brother instincts could be smothering sometimes. She was glad that he hadn't said anything yet, but she could feel his concern radiating off him like waves. She ignored him and focused on cutting her apple which she was finding surprisingly difficult.

Her fingers kept twitching oddly. She forced herself to hang onto her knife but the twitching wouldn't stop. Her knife clattered down onto her plate and she clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles were white.

She held back the panic and said quietly, "Fred."

He took everything in immediately and stood up. He gently grasped her elbow and pulled her up. "Let's get you out of here."

"Not to the infirmary," she whispered as he ushered her out. She appreciated that he walked close enough to her that he could easily keep a hold on her but in a way that nobody noticed she was having a problem moving on her own.

"If you collapse, you're going where I take you," he growled back. As soon as they were out of sight, he pulled her up on his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulders. He could feel her breath coming in quick pants. He picked up the pace as he headed to their rooms.

Maybe he could get Madame Pomfrey to take a secret look at her if she passed out.

. . .

Two days later he came around a corner and saw a crumpled bundle in the middle of the hall.

"Hermione, you idiot," Fred muttered as he heaved her over his shoulder. He was going to have to stun her and lock her in her room to get her to stay in one spot to recover. If he found her collapsed in one more hidden passageway….

"Stop calling me an idiot," she mumbled into his shirt. She squirmed slightly. "Lemme go, we have class in fifteen minutes."

"'We have class in fifteen minutes', she says. You're in no condition to teach anything! What the bloody hell were you doing in the passage way anyways?" he demanded, sounding not unlike a smothering Molly Weasley.

"Was trying to get some food," she answered. "Let me down, I can walk. I was just asleep."

"Oh yes, because sleeping on cold stone is the perfect way to get yourself healed."

"Shut up. I was up all night."

He immediately set her down. "Was it nightmares?"

"What? No, I was working on what to say to Magorian about Friday. And the whole apparation thing." She paused a moment. "I'm going to see him alone."

Fred was so outraged by her matter of fact tone that he couldn't utter a single word. Hermione took this opportunity to stride shakily down the hall and into their classroom. Fred dashed after her. Before she could say a single thing, he spoke.

"We're giving you all today off. Meet with your house- it's every house for itself on Friday!- and discuss strategies. You'll need all the prep you can get!"

"Professor, what are we even going to be doing?" a Hufflepuff asked curiously.

"Hand up, Conal. And I'm not a professor."

Hermione stepped in with a small glare at Fred. "You're all going to be tagged so we know exactly which spells were used in case of an emergency. Certain spells will be blocked, like Unforgivables and several darker spells. Points will be awarded for how well duels are handled, creativity in spellwork, teamwork, and, of course, winning. The actual rules will be explained once everyone else has gathered together tomorrow." She leveled the class with flat look. "Any questions?"

A Ravenclaw raised her hand.

"Morris?"

"Where are we meeting you?"

"Oh didn't we tell you?" Fred said mischievously. "We're going to the Forbidden Forest. And you won't just have to defend yourself against other teams, you'll also have to keep an eye out for the creatures lurking around waiting to eat you."

. . .

"Fred, it's been three days. She should be functioning relatively well by now."

Sirius paused as he heard Madame Pomfrey's hushed voice. He had been intending on meeting up with the lovely Marina that evening, but eavesdropping seemed so much more interesting. He hadn't seen his DADA teacher since Tuesday morning. Everyone wanted to know where she had been, but no one wanted to ask Fred since he seemed so distracted. Sirius was definitely taking this opportunity to listen in.

He heard Fred shuffle slightly. "I told you, she hasn't been resting well. She's probably going to force herself out of bed by tomorrow, but she still looks just as bad as she did Sunday night."

Sirius hadn't heard anything about something happening Sunday. How many secrets did these two have?

"You said she got plenty of sleep Sunday and Monday. She should be fine by now."

Slight anger could be heard in Fred's tone. "She didn't sleep. Hermione hasn't actually slept in a few years now. She only gets about three and a half hours of actual sleep. Sure, she cat naps when she can but to say that she's gotten plenty of sleep is stretching it."

"Give her the sleep potions-"

"I told you. They don't work on her. She had them too often."

"I don't know what else to tell you without examining her then. If you can convince her to come in, I'll have a better idea of how to help her."

Fred snorted.

Sirius heard footsteps heading his way so he ducked behind a tapestry. He pressed himself into the wall as he thought of everything he had just heard. Suddenly, the tapestry moved and he was face to face with Fred.

"Walk with me," he ordered.

. . .

Pale moonlight streamed through the windows, lighting the passageway. The air was dry and cool, enough that Hermione had grabbed a light hoodie on her way out of her rooms. Her fingers lightly brushed along the stone walls as she silently shuffled her way towards the main doors. She wasn't sure where Fred was, but she hadn't been willing to risk him tagging along with her had she gone earlier.

Her pace was slow. Her muscles would still occasionally stutter. Every time they did so, she would pause against the wall until they calmed once more. She would then shove herself upright, hating that her body was still sore and not cooperating the way she wanted it to. Her left arm wrapped around herself, she forced herself to let out steady breaths. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three. One. Two. Three.

She finally reached the heavy wooden doors. She summoned the tiniest bit of magic and pushed the doors open. The chilly breeze stung her flushed face, slightly cooling off her fever. She took another deep breath and braced herself. She slunk out from the shadows and rubbed her fingers together.

The Forbidden Forest had always held a certain fascination for Hermione. There was just so much just waiting to be discovered. Granted, she had been in the woods far more than recommended, but she still felt as though she had barely scratched the surface. She knew her way around- had even become friends with several of the centaurs. But she wanted to know everything about the dark and forbidden place.

She rolled her shoulders and stretched her legs, warming her muscles up a bit. When she felt she was ready, she took off at a fast paced jog. The faster she ran, the steadier her limbs seemed. So she pushed herself and soon her short locks of hair were plastered to her head. Sweat clung to her skin. She felt the sudden chill that comes with a fever breaking. She forced herself to keep moving at the quick pace. She wasn't going to question her body's decision to cool down.

By the time she managed to get to the edge of the Forest, she was doing some serious self-reflection on the wisdom of running so hard when her muscles still weren't quite ready. Before she entered the thick, dark trees, she leaned heavily against the twisted roots. She wasn't panting, for such a distance was quite small in comparison to the lengths and time she would normally be running. Thankfully, her arms and legs were no longer twitching, but a deep aching soreness was setting in.

She bit her lip. Fred was going to kill her.

She made her way into the shadowy forest. There was no path where she tread. The moonlight that barely trickled through the patches between branches and heavy leaves was just enough to light her way. Rustling and soft scratches could be heard. Amusement flared briefly and slipped away. If she hadn't spent a good three years living in a woods similar to this one, she supposed the quiet forest noises would wear against her senses and overwhelm her.

She paused abruptly. The breezes changed, the woods were suddenly silent. She sniffed slightly.

"I wish to speak with Magorian," she stated.

Branches and twigs broke as a large form slowly made its way into a small patch of moonlight. "Human," snarled the centaur, "What do you wish with Magorian?"

"I need to make a pact. And," -her voice cracked a bit here- "I need to consult him on a matter of great importance."

Another centaur silently appeared from behind the first. At his nod, the first made way for the second, bowing his head slightly. "What business do you have with me, hum-" He stopped and narrowed his eyes.

"You do not belong here."

"I know."

He eyed her a moment more. She stood loosely, as though she was ready to fight or for flight. Her eyes were sharp, her mouth pursed. There was a stubbornness to the set of her chin and both centaurs could almost see the power rolling inside her.

This was a supremely capable witch.

He tilted his head towards her. "What is this pact you wish to make?"

She straightened her posture to that of a soldier's stance, shoulders back, feet slightly apart. "My partner and I have been put in charge of teaching the Hogwarts students how to defend themselves against the dark arts. We are holding an assignment here in the Forest in two nights."

"No." His answer, without hesitation, was firm.

Her eyes snapped. "Negotiations are not complete yet. Be silent until I have finished."

The first centaur growled and made as if to hit her but found he couldn't move. He tried to shout but his voice could not be heard. He glared at Hermione who merely glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. "I'm not speaking to you."

She turned her attention back to Magorian. "We will be using the Forest. There will be certain areas I will keep the students out of, however. In exchange for keeping the students away from your young and out of your hunting grounds, I want your word that you will not harm my students."

"You know we do not harm innocents."

"Some of them are not as innocent as children ought to be. And my companion and I as well as several students have reached their majority. I want your agreement that they will not be touched."

"And if we do not agree?"

"I'm still keeping them away from your young. But you will be the first I kill in exchange."

He scoffed. "You cannot win against a centaur on the hunt, foolish human."

"You would not be the first centaur I have gone up against. And you would not be the first opponent to think that he could easily overwhelm me."

He watched her closely. The steadiness of her gaze, the strength of her stance, and the hard promises in her tone convinced him to reconsider.

"Do you know how to make a barrier?"

"I do. My partner and I were the ones who added to the Hogwarts barriers a few weeks ago. You probably felt the wards when they went up."

A faint look of surprise crossed his face. "That was you?"

"It was. And I will make sure to keep my students in a specific section of the Forest."

"You mentioned needing advice as well."

He watched her closely as an air of vulnerability settled around her.

"You know I don't belong here. How do I get back?"

He looked past the barriers she had erected around herself. Instead of a soldier, he saw a little girl playing quietly by herself. He didn't see a powerful witch; he saw a young teenager. He didn't see a strategist; he saw a girl who never had a chance to live the very life she had been fighting for. He didn't see a victim of hard choices and circumstance. He saw a survivor. And if there was one thing he could respect in a human, it was the ability to survive.

He looked up at the little bits of sky. "I cannot answer your question just yet. But we will consult the stars. Come after your little games. We will talk."

Hermione bowed low. "Thank you. I will see to the barriers tomorrow evening." She spun on her heel and strode away.

Magorian turned to his still silent companion. "Call the herd. We have much to discuss."

Impatiently, the centaur pointed to his throat, indicating that he still could not speak.

Magorian snorted. "Foolish foal, she removed the spells as soon as you stopped threatening her."

. . .


	13. Chapter 13: Just a Game

Breathe in. Breathe out. Slow it down. Control your heaving chest. Slow. Slower. Breathe in. Breathe out.

A twig snapped. She sucked in a startled breath far too quickly and almost choked. The shadows hid her for now, but where was her pursuer? She pressed herself harder into the tree, the rough bark scraping deeply into her skin.

Her mind raced as she tried to figure out how to signal someone, anyone to come help her. She barely holds back her panic. Come on, THINK, she screamed to herself. You're top of your class, the least you can do is out-duel two measly little slimeballs.

She had already fought and escaped from four separate duels. She had felt the close brush of death at least twice during each of them. Her left eye was almost swollen shut and a long cut ran from her right temple to her chin. Her arms and hands felt as though they had been shredded and her ribs and legs held already darkening bruises. She was pretty sure she had sprained her ankle as well.

She finally pinpointed the sound of her next attacker. There, to her left. Now or never.

She burst out in a blaze of spells. Unfortunately for her, her opponent was skilled in shield casting. Her attacks slid off and around them. Just when she was about to run again, she was blasted through a thick tree behind her.

As she lay on the damp ground, gasping and wheezing, a shadow loomed over her. She met his eyes fiercely.

"Hello, mudblood."

"Severus, please-"

Her voice trailed off at the condescending look he sent her.

And for the first time that night, Lily Evans was well and truly terrified.

. . .

Remus would swear later that he was fighting for his life.

He dodged dark spell after dark spell, some barely skimming him. Every once in a while he would feel the pain of one of the darker spells skimming past him. He ducked.

Just in time too, because the tree behind him exploded, showering him with chunks of wood. He fired off a few attack spells of his own before he was tackled to the side. He threw a fist up, scraping past his opponent's face. He managed to flip them over before he was nailed in between his legs and tossed over.

Remus wheezed painfully. He fumbled around for his wand as a dark shadow moved towards him. Before he could move, his attacker grabbed his hair and slammed his head into the ground, once, twice.

He tried to see who he had been fighting, but all he saw before the world went dark was a pale strip of dirty yellow.

. . .

Madam Pomfrey wished for the fifty-ninth time that night that she hadn't agreed to help Hermione and Fred with their mock battle exercise.

All throughout the night, students had gradually trickled in. In the early hours, there were only bumps and bruises and dazed looks. But as the night dragged on, the wounds became more serious. She wasn't sure at what point she began dreading the students coming in, but every second now, she wished the game would end.

She wasn't sure if she could stand listening to any more children screaming.

. . .

Just as the spell was about to hit her, a shield was thrown up around her. Severus and Lily both whirled around to see her rescuer.

Fred stalked slowly forward. "No torture, Mister Snape," he said smoothly. "Duels and surprise attacks, but absolutely no torture."

Lily was livid, her anger overcoming her fear now that a teacher was present. "Why didn't you stop him sooner? I could have been killed!"

Fred raised an eyebrow. "You didn't die. Carry on."

Before Fred even finished speaking however, Snape had stunned her and captured her wand. Lily was stunned. How the hell did he manage to defeat her?

"Head Girl is down for the count, add ten points to Slytherin for creativity," Fred said to the patronus sitting by his feet. The little fox nodded and scampered away into the Forest.

He turned to Lily. "I'd suggest getting back to the castle. You've got some nasty looking wounds there."

He disappeared with a crack. When Lily turned to yell at Severus, he was already gone.

Along with her wand.

. . .

Fred's fox had delivered his message and disappeared as soon as she wrote it down. She was slightly surprised by their students so far. She thought back to just a few hours before when she and Fred had been explaining the rules of the game.

"_How many of you know of a muggle game called capture the flag?" Hermione asked the crowds of almost-adults in front of her. Pockets of students raised their hands hesitantly. She assumed that these were the muggleborns. _

"_All right, what we're doing tonight is something very similar… but with a little bit of a…twist."_

_Fred stepped up and continued, "Your end goal is to capture the other houses' flags. The house with the most flags wins. If there's a tie at midnight, then whichever house has the most points wins. If by some chance, both houses have the same amount of points, then whoever has the most members left wins."_

"_And what do we win?" James shouted from the back. Murmuring arose as the students all suddenly realized none of them knew what the prize was._

_Fred smirked. "Why, you win two hundred house points. However!" he shouted over the clamour. "However, you have to win first."_

"_To stay in the game," Hermione butted in. "You have to be able to move. So no matter what spells and what physical attacks are made on your person, you are not out until you are either unable to do magic or unable to move. Attack and defensive spells that _have been covered in class_ are permitted. No Unforgivables." Her eyes were cold as ice. "You use an Unforgivable on another student and I swear to the depths of the seventh hell I will turn you into Azkaban myself. _Is that understood_?"_

_Everyone nodded quickly. _

"_Are there any questions?"_

_A seventh year Hufflepuff raised his hand. "Does the game go till somebody wins or is there a time limit?"_

_Fred grinned. "Oh, don't worry. There's a time limit. You have until midnight to prove to us you're not a complete waste of space."_

_Hermione snorted. "Anything else?"_

"_Yeah I've got one," Sirius said. He crossed his arms. "How do we get points to win besides getting the flags?"_

_Fred bared his teeth in what could have been called a smile. It was not a nice smile however. "You take each other out. By whatever means necessary within the rules."_

"_Fred and I will be making rounds within the Forest. Don't leave the barriers we've set up. If any creature attacks you that you know you can't handle, then you send up a red flare and one of us will come." She looked them all over. Reaching deep into her pockets she asked, "Everybody here has used a portkey correct? Grab hold and it'll take you to your base." She tossed out the enlarged ropes she had spelled. _

"_Remember, children," Fred said jovially with a manic gleam in his eyes. "This is war."_

_They apparated away just before the portkeys went off._

She was startled out of her thoughts as a couple of Slytherin boys entered the clearing near her. She walked silently over to watch as a Hufflepuff girl quickly and efficiently took them both out. She clapped her hands loudly, making the girl whirl around in surprise.

Hermione was pleased that the girl, her name was Mariel or something, hadn't lowered her defenses at all once the boys were incapacitated. Her wand was up and at the ready, her stance was firm and prepared for fight or flight. Her eyes were watchful and careful.

"Well done," Hermione said quietly. She pulled out her wand and tapped it against a couple of acorns. She tossed them on the two boys and watched to make sure that they disappeared properly. She turned back to the girl.

"You've very obviously been paying attention in class."

The girl straightened but kept her wand ready. "With all due respect, miss, you make it very difficult not to, what with all your war and death talk."

Hermione snorted. "Seeing as this is how much you're struggling just against your classmates," –she gestured to the girl's scuffed and slightly bloody appearance- "how well do you really think you'll fair against Death Eaters twice your age with eons of knowledge and experience?"

The girl nodded doubtfully. "But we won't really have to fight will we?"

Hermione shot her a cold glare. "Maybe not now. But you will. Currently, you have a game to get back to, don't you?"

Her wand went off, shaking and shooting out sparks. Hermione went cold. One of the students was in an actual life or death situation. She waved her wand and a map appeared with every single student's location marked.

Her eyes quickly found the student in trouble. It was that Slytherin boy she had dueled a month or so ago. Rosier. She hissed.

"Here's a portkey to Madame Pomfrey. Tell her there's been an emergency and to prepare for the worst." She shoved a button into Mariel's hands and apparated away before the girl could say anything.

. . .

Rosier had no idea what had happened. He had been ducking away from a handful of Ravenclaws when he had come upon the barrier his teachers had told him about. He had reached out and touched it. It had stung him slightly so he decided to avoid going through it. He knew a painful shield spell when he saw it.

After that, his memory got a little fuzzy.

He had felt a thud and an intense pain in his side. He looked down only to see that there were three wooden sticks emerging from his stomach. He dazedly reached down a touched them, trying to figure out what they were. He didn't know of any spell that would do that.

He shook his head trying to clear it of the fog that was setting it and think through the pain that was encompassing his entire body now. Several large figures appeared in the shadows. He struggled to lift his wand to send off a flare like Hermione and Fred had told them to.

Another long wooden stick appeared, this time through his hand. Rosier couldn't hold back the screams any more. He coughed. Blood spurted out and began to drizzle down his chin. For the first time, Rosier was afraid. Tears leaked out his eyes as he tried to control his hyperventilation.

Finally the figures came into the moonlight. He tried his best to memorize their faces.

Centaurs always were easy to remember.

. . .

Hermione appeared just as Rosier was about to lose consciousness. She flung up a shield while simultaneously casting an immobility spell to keep the culprits from running. She ran to Rosier's side.

"Don't you dare die on me, kid," she growled as she quickly cast diagnostic spells on him. He tried to focus on her voice but the darkness kept calling him back.

She quickly put him under a numbing spell and yanked the two spears and four arrows that had been shot through him. She stopped the bleeding and grabbed a blood replenishing vial from her pocket. She immediately poured it down his throat and forced him to keep it down. She checked her diagnostics again. He had a lot of internal damage that she couldn't heal here.

She picked the boy up and slung him over her shoulder. He was heavy even with a feather light charm on him, and she stumbled a bit. She had to get him Madame Pomfrey though. There was no way she was losing one of her students to something as this.

. . .

Marial gasped as she landed right by the medic tent. She stumbled a bit but was soon sprinting full speed.

"MADAME POMFREY," she bellowed as loud as she could. "MADAME POMFREY!"

"Yes, dear, what is it? Where are you hurt?" The nurse came out wiping her hands on a pinkish towel, her face drawn and tired. Healing so many students was really wearing her out.

"Hermione said there's been an emergency and prepare for the worst," the girl gasped out.

Madame Pomfrey's face went dead white and then she sprang into action. "If you can walk, I need you out of the tent immediately!" she ordered as she moved quickly over to one of the beds nearby. "If you're a prefect, gather your house together and wait quietly out of the way. When Hermione gets here, do not cause any commotion."

She busied herself getting any and all potions she might need. She had a feeling her long night was about to get even longer.

. . .

A loud crack was heard across the field as Hermione appeared. Lily kept her Gryffindors back, but she couldn't help the small gasp that escaped her at the sight.

Her teacher was splattered in blood. From the spots where the boy- Lily couldn't see who- had rested against her, dark patches had formed. Hermione carefully laid him down on the bed where Madame Pomfrey gestured.

Everyone could hear her telling the nurse what had happened. They were shocked. The centaurs were supposed to leave them alone.

Lily couldn't believe her ears. What about the rest of the students out there? What would happen to them? She turned and began heading back to the Forest.

"Where do you think you're going, Miss Evans?" Hermione's harsh voice sounded from across the way.

She whirled on her teacher. "I'm going to go and make sure that no one else gets hurt! How could you allow something like this to happen?"

Lily wasn't sure how it happened but her emaciated teacher was in her face, practically snarling.

"You can't even protect yourself from a mediocre duelist such as Snape, what the fuck makes you think you can beat a centaur?" Hermione said cruelly. "You can't save anyone, Miss Evans. You didn't even try to save yourself. Do the world a favor and sit your ass down, while I go handle this."

"It's your fault this happened in the first place!" Lily screamed at Hermione's back. "And you know that sticking charm only works on live beings when you're still present. Those centaurs are long gone by now!"

Lily was mildly frightened by the amused gleam in Hermione's eyes. "Sweetheart, if you think I didn't get my information on who they were before Rosier blacked out, you should really start paying attention in class. I'm nothing if not thorough."

And with that, she disapparated.

. . .

"MAGORIAN!"

The centaur looked up to see a furious witch stalking through the stomping grounds. He raced over to her.

"You should not be here," he hissed. "We had a deal!"

"We had a deal until four of you attacked one of mine while he was in the fucking barrier." Hermione's hair was fairly sparking and her anger rolled off her in waves. She shoved her wand up under his chin.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't blast you to pieces right now," she hissed.

Magorian stood very, very still. He had gazed into the stars the night before and tried to see what was in store for this little witch. All he could get was a feeling of dread and fear; all he could see was death and pain. She seemed young, but as he gazed into her raging eyes, he saw she was an old soul, scarred and hardened. She would make good her threats.

"I had no knowledge of a breach in our agreement," he said as calmly as he could.

"Lies!" But she withdrew her wand. He breathed a sigh of relief but he knew the danger had not passed yet.

"I swear on the stars."

"Then give me the four who hurt mine."

He stiffened. "I cannot do that."

"Your hatred of humans is legendary, Magorian. But your code of honor is even more so. Give me the four who broke our pact." Her eyes narrowed. "Or I will find them myself."

"You will kill them."

She shook her head. "I'm going to blast them to pieces. You can either take the fall for them right this minute, or you can tell me where they are."

He ran a hand through his locks of hair. She was giving him no choice but he knew which one would balance the scales. "They're in the west. By the caves near the spiders."

Hermione nodded. She was gone before he could say anything else.

. . .

At ten past midnight, Fred walked out of the woods with the last stragglers. He looked around for Hermione. She should have been back with the student that was so badly injured by now.

"Hey, Evans!" he called to the Head Girl. "Where's Hermione?"

Lily turned a furious gaze on him. "Miss Greene," she said venomously, "elected to go and hunt down the centaurs that hurt Rosier. Not that she'll actually be able to do anything."

Fred felt all the blood drain from his face. "Shit. Pomfrey, I'm going after Hermione!" He dug around in his pockets for his portkey. Right as he activated it, he felt hands grabbing his shirt.

He landed on his feet in the woods. He looked down at the four boys that had latched onto him. Three of the Marauders and surprisingly, Snape.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Fred said calmly. His tone left the boys in no doubt as to how he felt about them being there however.

"We're here to help you rescue Miss Hermione," Remus said. There was no way they could let two kids their age go up against four centaurs. James and Sirius nodded.

"You're here to- oh for the love of- Snape, what about you?"

"I want to see you fight for real," the boy shrugged.

Fred glared at them. "You're all daft. I'm not going to _rescue_ Hermione." He sighed. "And I'm pretty sure all the fighting is over by now."

Sirius tilted his head curiously. "What makes you say that?"

Fred gestured behind them. "Because of that."

The boys turned and felt like they were hit with a brick wall.

The scent of blood was everywhere, that's the first thing they noticed.

Dark red, almost purple, liquid was everywhere. It dripped from the tree leaves and down the bark. Larger smeared patches showed that large somethings had been flung into them with a mighty force. Several trees and bushes were uprooted and knocked down. All around, the only color that could be seen was that deep, dark, chilling red.

James took a closer look. The sheer carnage of the scene didn't register until he saw several limbs scattered nearby. He felt his stomach heave and suddenly he was vomiting the entire contents of his stomach.

Sirius felt cold. He felt somewhat ashamed that they had thought that they could help rescue Hermione. He was in awe of the wreckage before him. In awe and more than a little frightened. Memories of his childhood kept flitting in and out of his mind.

Fred walked forward. Remus flung out an arm to stop him.

"What are you doing? If you go in there, you'll get covered in their….remains. We have to find Hermione."

Fred shoved the boy's arm away from him and snarled, "She's right over there. Now get out of my way so I can go make sure she's ok."

He carefully walked over to where the boys could now see a huddled form near the edge of her magically and force-made clearing.

"Hermione, love."

She turned her eyes up to meet his. Blood dripped from her temple, but most of the gore covering her face and arms was obviously not hers. What worried Fred the most was the blank stare she was giving him.

"Hey," he said quietly, as she moved to sit next to her. He tried to ignore the blood that seeped into his clothes and onto his skin. He reached up and brushed some of her curly hair out of her face.

She didn't react. Not to his voice, not to his touch.

"Hermione," he whispered. He gently pulled her into his arms and began to rock her. The boys watched from a distance as Fred began to alternate between whispering in her ear and singing to her softly.

Slowly, she began to come back from the faraway place she had been. It took her several minutes to realize where she was. She pushed herself away from the now silent Fred and looked around her.

"I lost control again, didn't I," she said hoarsely.

Fred hummed in agreement but said nothing.

She let out a long breath and shoved herself up. "Eventually, I'm going to have to stop killing people that piss me off."

"Or," Fred suggested as he joined her in surveyed the damage she did. "People could just stop reneging on deals and stop trying to kill the ones under your protection."

Hermione let out a harsh laugh. "Yeah, that's more realistic."

She froze when she saw the boys. "You brought students here?"

Fred put his hands up. "They grabbed me when my portkey went off. And I had to get you back before we all went back."

She sent him a glare and stomped over to her students. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"We just wanted to rescue you!" Remus said.

"But apparently you did not need rescuing," James muttered.

Her eyebrows shot up in disbelief. "All three of you were taken out by sixth year Hufflepuffs. The only one who might have been helpful is Mister Snape over there, but I'm pretty sure he was just here to spy."

She turned away. "All four of you have detention with me until winter break. Be in my office at nine Monday night."

Fred and Hermione eached grabbed two of the boys and apparated before they could protest.


	14. Chapter 14: Hogsmeade

"He could have died!"

"But he didn't! I took care of it!"

"Your idea of 'taking care of' things leaves a lot to be desired, miss! You tore apart three centaurs and allowed innocent students to see the carnage. Not to mention we're now on shaky ground with the rest of Magorian's herd!"

"I tore apart four, thank you very much. They betrayed our deal. Their honor was at stake. There won't be any repercussions from me tearing apart the four who almost killed my student out of a misplaced sense of hatred towards humans!"

"You said the students weren't even going to be hurt!"

"I said that they would be taken care of and that the more dangerous spells would not be permitted."

"All right, all right, enough!" Dumbledore bellowed. He stared down his nose at the three teachers gathered in his office. Hermione was looking mutinous and Fred was undoubtedly backing her up. He stood slightly behind her, ready to step in should she need him to. McGonagall was completely infuriated that a student had almost been killed in an exercise that she had been overruled on.

"Fred, Hermione, I'm very upset with both of you. Fred, I expected you to take more thorough measures in protecting the students. Hermione, you can't just go around executing Beasts without a trial. We have justice system here. Think of the example you're setting for the students."

"With all due respect, sir," Hermione snarled, not sounding respectful in the least. "I followed the laws of the centaurs. I was perfectly within my rights to exact justice on the centaurs that reneged on their leader's pact. I had permission from Magorian himself to track them down."

She crossed her arms. "As for setting an example for the students, if they had followed our orders and not mistakenly believed I needed saving, they would have seen nothing. And had no knowledge of what had happened."

Dumbledore looked at her sternly. "You are missing the point, Miss Greene."

She snorted. "More like blatantly ignoring it. I will not apologize for my actions. Would you rather I have taken care of it immediately or would you rather deal with Rosier's parents when they come demanding to know why you have no taken steps to avenge their son?"

Dumbledore and McGonagall looked slightly taken back by that.

"All life is sacred, Miss Greene," McGonagall said slowly, as though speaking to a child. "You cannot simply expect us to be on board with you completely tearing apart three creatures that have not bothered us in years when we hold fast to that belief."

Hermione said nothing for a moment. "All life is indeed sacred," she said finally. "But I believe that the life of my student is far more important than the lives of centaurs that had already proven themselves to be backstabbers and deal breakers."

Fred finally spoke up. "From what we can tell, the rest of Magorian's herd stayed away from where the barriers were erected. The ones that Hermione took out must have been in the planned area before we set off the wards."

Dumbledore sat down in his chair and rubbed his temples. "Does it not bother you that you have killed in such a horrendous fashion, Miss Greene?"

"No," came Hermione's immediate reply.

McGonagall felt that there was more to Miss Greene than what she was being presented with, but there was something about her eyes that made the older professor let it go. The girl seemed almost haunted, but there was a hard edge there that made McGonagall reconsider what she had been about to say.

"Albus," she interrupted what was sure to be an explosive argument. "Let's let it go for now. What's done is done. And these two need to get to Hogsmeade soon."

He narrowed his eyes at the three of them. "Fine. But I won't have you teaching my students how to kill people, Miss Greene. So think about that the next time you decide to have a class activity."

"Don't threaten me, sir. I don't do well with threats. I don't technically need this job, but you do need students that can defend themselves and survive. If they need to learn something, you can guarantee that I will be teaching them," Hermione said coldly.

"Aaaaannddd, on that note, we'll be taking our leave," Fred said as he pushed her out the door. "Have a lovely afternoon, professors!"

. . .

Hermione stalked off down the streets muttering about incompetent headmasters. Fred watched her go for a minute, hoping that none of the students would be foolish enough to bother her. She had had a very stressful last twelve hours.

He meandered his way through the town. Store fronts hadn't changed much in the last twenty years. Almost everything was exactly the same as it was during his own time at Hogwarts. He fondly recalled George and his favorite haunts.

His thoughts turned a bit melancholy at the thought of George. His twin would have thought going back in time to be the grandest adventure. And maybe on some level it was. He was seeing history unravel right in front of him instead of just reading it in textbooks or hearing someone briefly speak of it.

But he was also still trying to mentally and physically recover from the war he and Hermione had left behind. No matter what Hermione believed, he too was struggling to cope with the world around him.

He still woke from nightmares. Dark dreams where he could hear the piercing cries of his friends, where all around was the dreaded lime green, where his body felt like it was being blasted apart. He could still taste the smoke and blood. He could still feel the fear and emptiness and the terrifying pain of hopelessness. He could still see the broken bodies and crumbled down walls where they made their last stand.

They won. He knew they won. But right now, he wasn't living in a world where good ol' Voldy had been defeated yet. He was living the days when the darkness was only just beginning to creep upon them.

And somehow, that terrified him more than the fact that his nightmares weren't getting better.

He shook himself out of that train of thought. He had to be strong for Hermione. He owed it to her. She had to keep believing that he was perfectly fine.

He popped into the Leaky Cauldron and noticed a table full of Hufflepuffs. He nodded to a couple and made his way to the bar.

"I'm needing something a bit stronger than butterbeer, love," he said jovially to Madame Rosmerta.

She eyed him skeptically. "Not sure I can, sir. You're a bit young aren't you?"

He chuckled. "I'm one of the new Defense Against Dark Arts teachers up at Hogwarts. I think that alone qualifies me for a drink."

She laughed with him. "I suppose you're right. Here's one on the house. Celebrate your new position."

"Thanks, miss." He winked at her and sauntered over to where the Marauders had just settled themselves. Surprisingly, he saw Peter Pettigrew was with them for once. Lately Fred had been seeing him with various Slytherins, which irritated Hermione to no end.

Sometimes, time travel sucked.

"Hullo, boys!"

"So how much trouble did Hermione get it last night?" Sirius wasted no time asking.

Fred raised his eyebrows. "Now, how would you know she got in trouble?"

James snorted. "Please. She completely obliterated three Beasts. There's no way Dumbledore would give her a free pass on that one."

"Four, and Dumbledore wouldn't even have known something like that had happened, had three of you and Mister Snape not tagged along uninvited."

"Someone would have noticed that centaurs were missing! The leader would have thrown a fit and declared war!"

A loud bang caused the four boys to jump. Fred just watched in mild amusement as Hermione stalked over. Apparently her trip to the bookstore was not a good one.

"What are you drinking?" she demanded irritably.

"Firewhiskey."

She nodded and stalked over to the bar. A moment later she was back with a full bottle.

"This is for me," she told Fred sternly. He shrugged at her. One of them would need a clear head and it didn't look she had any intention of fulfilling that duty.

"Did you not find anything at the book store?"

"No, I did not. I was too busy being hounded by some fourth year menaces that seem to think that because I help occasionally with homework, it's acceptable to pry into what I do. Brats," she muttered the last into her glass right before she tossed it back.

The Marauders all traded glances. They really wanted answers, but there was no way they were going to get them with Hermione there.

"You didn't… hex them… did you?" Fred asked hesitantly.

"No, but I did put the fear of God into them."

"Hermione…"

"Shut up. I'm trying to get drunk."

"But you're a teacher?" Remus asked curiously.

"Who the hell cares? I avenged a student and was reprimanded for it for about four hours. I'm not in the mood to behave. Let me be the eighteen year old I am."

Fred laughed. "If you're pretending to be a normal eighteen year old, you can't drink that you know."

"I'm in my rebellious phase."

Fred just shook his head as he turned back to the boys. "What were we saying before this rebellious teenager came in?"

"Someone would have known the centaurs were missing, I think," Sirius said slowly, not sure if they should continue their previous conversation. Hermione wasn't even listening to them though. She was working her way steadily through her alcohol and ignoring everything else.

"Right. Magorian himself gave them away so I don't think that would have been an issue really. Now," Fred said as he played with his now empty glass. "Let's talk about literally anything else."

"Let's talk about you and Hermione's relationship!" James suggested excitedly.

Fred groaned. "What the bloody hell… I thought we were past those questions!"

Sirius chuckled as Remus grinned. "Until we dig to the bottom of the mystery that is you, we're not giving up," Sirius stated.

Hermione snorted. "Good luck with that, boys," she said, her words surprisingly clear considering that she had drank more than half the bottle. She eyed her firewhiskey carefully. "Either I'm well on my way to becoming an alcoholic or this is not as strong as the last batch I had."

She stood up from the table and wandered over to the bar.

"Do you ever get the feeling," James asked cautiously, "that Hermione has as many layers as an onion?"

Fred smiled tiredly. "That she does. And the closer you get to the center the more she makes you cry."

Peter, who had been silent thus far, squeaked out, "How many times did she make you cry, Mr. Fred?"

"Far too many to count." He didn't bother to specify why she had made him cry. Thinking about it would only bring up worse memories.

"Was one of them when she rejected your love confession?" James asked eagerly.

"Wha- where did you- why do- no!" he spluttered.

"You know," Sirius said as he played with his bottle of butterbeer. "I've noticed something with the girls I date. Usually if they don't want me to know something, they more they protest, the closer I am to an answer."

Fred raised an eyebrow. "Well, I can safely say that I have never confessed my love for Hermione. And she's never confessed her love to me."

The four boys exchanged a look. Fred sounded genuine enough. But there was some slight inflections that showed he wasn't telling them the whole truth.

"So why are you so sad about it?" Remus asked.

Fred rolled his eyes. "Can we please talk about anything other than dead centaurs and mine and Hermione's nonexistent romantic relationship?"

James shrugged. "Sure. Sirius wants to know if he can date her."

Sirius looked surprised at that information. "I do?"

"You think she's hot."

"She _is_ hot."

"Sirius is welcome to woo her," Fred smirked. "She's not going to say yes to a date though."

Sirius stood up. "Watch me woo the lady."

. . .

"She turned you down cold," James laughed as they trudged back to Hogwarts.

Sirius threw out a punch that James easily ducked. "She was completely un-woo-able. I don't even know how it happened," Sirius confessed. "One minute I'm flirting and then next I feel like she's about to murder me if I don't leave her presence immediately."

"That is because you came during her drinking time," Fred laughed as walked by Hermione. She was still annoyed at Sirius so she wasn't acknowledging any of them. He nudged her slightly and winked when she only glared at him. "Not that she would say yes had you chosen any other time."

"She is standing right here," she finally groused. "And she is done with this topic of discussion." She strode away.

But as she was leaving, she stumbled. She barely managed to catch herself, only to find that knees had turned to jelly. She was almost unable to remain upright. Her hands began to shake. She squeezed them together trying to keep them still but she knew it wouldn't work.

"Fred," she said right before a spasm racked her whole body. She fell to her knees as all of her began to shake uncontrollably.

"Hermione, calm down, I've got you," Fred whispered. He knelt down next to her and turned her on her side as she spasmed. After a minute of intense seizing, her body settled down to small tremors.

When she had stopped shaking enough, he pulled her gently into his arms and held her while she calmed down. Her fingers twisted themselves in his sweater, and she buried her face into the crook of his neck. He murmured into her ear.

The four boys had stood aside in shock as Fred took care of Hermione. Sirius and Remus could just barely work out what Fred was telling her as he slowly rocked her back and forth.

"Shh, it's ok, Hermione, you're ok. Fred's not leaving. You're safe, they can't hurt you. You brave girl, my little Hermione is ok." He repeated the words over and over until she had her breathing under control.

"Take me back, Fred," she whispered, closing her eyes to the world that was still spinning.

"Ok, love," he answered. He picked her up carefully and started the long trek back to Hogwarts. Neither of them paid any attention to the four boys they left behind.

"Has… has that happened before?" Peter asked quietly.

Sirius sighed and blew a lock of hair out of his eyes. "Yes. I think this is the third, possibly fourth time since they got here."

Remus and James exchanged a look. "How do you know that, mate?" James asked curiously.

"We've only seen the one," Remus added.

Sirius shoved his hands into his pockets. "I came across Fred talking to Madame Pomfrey about a week ago. Fred caught me after and told me some stuff. Remember when a few days ago, she was looking exhausted and she wasn't walking as smoothly as she usually does?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, Fred said that she had another attack but this one was in her sleep. And he asked me to keep an eye on her and what to do if he or Madame Pomfrey wasn't around. He said she wouldn't trust me, but at least somebody would know what to do just in case."

The four were silent for a moment. "What do you think happened to her?" Remus finally asked.

Sirius shrugged. "He wouldn't say. He just said that she had some kind of muggle disorder that couldn't be fixed with magic."

The four slowly made their way back to the school. They had a lot to think about.

. . .

James Potter was completely infuriating.

First, he wouldn't leave her alone. For years he hasn't left her alone. Now, for some random reason she can't comprehend, he's suddenly very distant and only calls her by Evans. He doesn't pursue her in the hallways, he doesn't offer to carry her books. He doesn't ask her for help on homework. He treats her exactly like he treats every other girl.

When Lily first noticed that he was more friendly with their pretty DADA teacher, she had shrugged it off. Typical Marauder behavior. But over the last four days, she had noticed that he was watching Miss Greene more carefully than he had ever watched Lily. And that caused her stomach to twist in a rather uncomfortable way.

She didn't like Miss Greene. At first she had been fascinating to watch since Lily had never seen someone like her. But then Miss Greene began to push them against everything they had been taught thus far. She challenged them and was constantly correcting them. She was cold and hard and bitter. She never smiled, never laughed.

But, oh, was she smart. Lily had overheard her explaining some fifth year potions to a third year the other day. Miss Greene had be able to explain why each and every component was necessary to make the potions. Lily hadn't even known half of that.

Being smart was_ her_ thing. She knew she wouldn't feel as threatened by Miss Greene if the girl wasn't only a year older.

She buried her head into her pillows as she suddenly realized what her problem was. She wasn't mad about being replaced by Miss Greene. She was mad that James had seemingly moved on.

Jealousy, thy name is Lily.


	15. Chapter 15: Musings

Hermione carefully folded the small scroll she had just received. It seemed Magorian held no grudges and was consulting the stars constantly to see what could be done about her and Fred's predicament. According to his note, he wouldn't have a definite answer until All Hallow's Eve.

While she wasn't entirely content with that, she supposed she would just have to deal with it. She returned her attention back to the stack of books on ancient magic.

It was really bothering her that she could not figure out how she and Fred had apparated directly into Hogwarts. According to everything she had read, it shouldn't have been possible. The anti-apparation spells were an integral part of what protected Hogwarts. And if the two of them had somehow disabled them… Well. It would be a_ slight_ problem in the future.

She became abruptly alert as she heard some students entering the library. Which they also should not have been doing since it was long past curfew. She pushed herself out of her chair and silently crept over to the shelves she heard them sneaking through.

"You know," she said as she stepped in front of the Marauders. Their faces showed their shock, dismay, and slight fright at her appearance. "You should really try to be quieter when sneaking. It's not good for pranks you know when you're louder than a herd of hippogriffs."

"We were just on our way to the kitchens to get a midnight snack," James answered hastily.

She snorted. "Right, that's why you were headed towards the passage that leads to Hogsmeade, hm?" She shook her head. "And, Fred, don't think I don't see you ducking behind Lupin over there."

Fred guiltily stepped forward. "Look, Hermione, we were just-"

"I don't care. Get out of the library. And you should know better than to let them take the passage that leads right out by the Forest. We've had enough adventures there for now." With that, she shuffled them out the door and cast a locking charm so they couldn't reenter.

If they were pranking with Fred, then they were safe enough. And she had realized long ago that sometimes there were more important things that following the rules.

. . .

"Well, that plan was thoroughly scrapped," Sirius muttered as they headed to the real passage to the kitchens. "What now?"

"Now, we go and eat cake because what else is there to do?" Fred answered cheerfully. He tickled the pear and shoved the four boys inside.

"Hey, Fred," James said after a little while as they sat around the large hearth. "Remember when you told me that Hermione was really smart?"

Fred was in the middle of stirring his hot cocoa. He gestured with his spoon. "She's brilliant actually. Why?"

"Do you think she would be in Ravenclaw if she were sorted?"

Remus piped up at that. "Actually, I've been wondering for a long time which house you're affiliated with. Isn't that one of the requirements for teaching? You have to help out a house?"

Fred shook his head as they settled down in front of the fire. "No, we don't. We didn't attend Hogwarts, so we don't have to help out any one specific house."

"So what house do you think you would be in, Mr. Fred?" asked Peter curiously.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Which one do you think?"

"I'm gonna say Slytherin," said Sirius after a moment. "You're really good at sneaking around. You've helped us with loads of prank ideas and Hermione hasn't the faintest idea."

Fred chuckled. "Oh, she knows all right. She just doesn't care. If I'm with you all, I'm not bugging her while she researches. So it's a win-win."

"What's she researching?"

"Magic," was the short reply. James thought that answer was a little too vague but filed it away for future thought.

"I think you would be in Ravenclaw," said Remus, trying to get the conversation back on track.

"What?" James and Sirius both said in confusion. "Why?"

"Because he's really clever," Remus said with a smirk. "You'd have to be to come up with the canary cream things he gave us. And he can keep up with Hermione."

"So are we agreed that we would put Hermione in Ravenclaw too?"

"Have you even listened to her study sessions?" James said scoffing. "She knows everything about anything." He nodded emphatically. "She's definitely a Ravenclaw."

"I was thinking she would be a Slytherin, actually," Peter spoke up hesitantly. All eyes snapped to him.

"Now, why," Fred said slowly, "would you think that?"

"Because she's cold and doesn't show her feelings," Peter said immediately. "Er, no offense, Mr. Fred."

Fred grinned. "None taken. Where would you stick me?"

Peter hesitated. "Um, I would stick you in Hufflepuff. Because you're always happy. And you like to help people." _And you hardly ever leave Hermione's side,_ he silently added.

"Which house do you think you would be in?" Sirius demanded. The other three leaned forward eagerly.

Fred laughed. "Oh, boys. There's only one house for me." He stood up and set his cup on the counter by the sink for the elves. "James, how goes your plan to catch Evans?"

The boys groaned as one. "He doesn't shut up about her still," Remus said.

Sirius snorted. "I think it's twice as bad as when he was constantly pursuing her."

"Hey! It's not that bad!" At the other three's glares, James quickly amended his statement. "Ok, maybe it is, but I think she's actually starting to notice me now."

Fred grinned. "So are you just going to kiss her out of nowhere like Hermione told you to or what?"

"Haven't got that far actually," James muttered.

"Maybe you should start thinking about it. Maybe ask her hang out at the All Hallow's Eve celebration."

"Maybe," James said noncommittally. He didn't want to get his hopes up. He was tired of constantly being rebuffed by one Lily Evans. He hadn't realized how exhausting rejection was until he took a break from pursuing her. He still loved her. He still wanted more than anything to stay by her side forever. But he really, well and truly, hated how much she pushed him away.

"Well, I'm off to bed. Make your way back to the dorms eventually, yeah?" Fred told them as he headed back up the passage.

The boys made noises of agreement but had no intentions of leaving any time soon. It had been some time since they had a chance to just hang out and be themselves with each other. There were pranks to be planned and plots to be hatched.

. . .

It had been a week. A full seven, twenty-four hour days since that dreadful night in the Forest. Most students had heard the rumors of the game. Everyone was taking great care in paying attention in DADA. The students were on edge. The teachers even more so.

Hermione and Fred had suddenly become wild cards. Third years and down no longer asked Hermione for help on homework. Fred was no longer invited to join in conversations before class. The two began to keep to themselves. Whispers followed them everywhere.

They did their best to ignore the fearful gossip. Well, Hermione just completely shut it out. She was used to be gossiped about unfortunately. But Fred had a harder time. It was more difficult for him to pretend he was the same when the only people he had to talk to was Hermione and the Marauders. He liked people and he thrived in their company. Being isolated like this, only made him wish even more than usual that George was there too.

Hermione was walking down the hall Saturday morning, on her way back to the library. Once again, she felt a sharp glare at the back of her head. Someone had been watching her all week and she was over it. The week's frustrations at her lack of progress and annoying students all came rushing down and she snapped.

She stalked over to the group of Slytherin boys and grabbed Rosier from the middle. She ignored his protests and shoved him into an empty classroom. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him in annoyance.

"What do you want?" she snarled.

Rosier paused in straightening his robes. "What makes you think I want anything from you?"

"Please, you've been watching me since you got out of the infirmary," she snorted. "Now what do you want? Because if you don't want anything, quit it with the stalking. It's annoying."

He paused before deciding to just take the plunge. "Why me?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why did the centaurs attack me? I was one of a couple hundred students. Why was I the only one attacked? I've asked other people and I wasn't the first student to run through that way. So why am I the only one almost slaughtered?"

She gave him a very flat stare. "How much do you know about centaurs?"

He shrugged. "They don't like humans and they're very secretive. That's about it."

She muttered under her breath about the idiocy and incompetence of previous instructors. "They don't like adults either. Children are innocent to them. Magorian was supposed to keep his herd away from our area that we were using because some of the students here have already reached their majority."

"But I'm only sixteen! I don't turn seventeen for another month!"

She met his eyes squarely. "They're also very sensitive to dark magic."

His face hardened. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She rolled her eyes. Reaching out, she grabbed his arm and shoved up his sleeve. The Dark Mark stood out against his pale skin. "He's exactly subtle in his claiming of servants."

He yanked his arm away. "You have no idea what you're talking about," he growled, face pale.

"Oh, don't I though? Who do you think cast a strong enough glamour on you that even Madame Pomfrey couldn't see past?"

He gaped at her. "Are… are you one of his followers?"

"Fuck no," she snarled.

"Then why are you keeping this a secret? Why aren't you turning me in?" he demanded.

She watched him carefully. "I think you should be more grateful and less inquisitive, don't you?" she answered coolly. "But it wasn't your time to die."

He gulped. "So what are you going to do now?"

"I guess you'll just have to find out. In the meantime, quit your damn staring."

. . .

Later on, she supposed that she should be concerned about teaching Death Eaters and potential Death Eaters as thoroughly as she had been. There was a high chance that she and Fred were indeed changing history without meaning to. But for some reason, the thought didn't bother her.

She had been doing a lot of thinking since her run in with Rosier the day before. And if she hadn't been keeping an eye on the ones she knew would later become enemies, she definitely would be worried. But they were lazy. Most of them, while they found DADA interesting, didn't bother putting much effort into the class unless it was attack spells.

And while she encouraged them to learn spells, she and Fred had been very careful to teach mostly defensive spells. If anything, they encouraged creativity when attacking each other. Of course, this meant even more trips to the infirmary since not all of them could remember the counter spells and Hermione wasn't inclined to share exactly how much she and Fred knew.

After the week she had, she was barely inclined to teach at all actually.

She had to admit though, that she was impressed with Dumbledore's ability to keep the news of the war away from the students. Oh, she definitely disagreed with his actions. Nothing good ever came from keeping people uninformed in dangerous times. But only a select few had any idea of how bloody and gruesome the Death Eater attacks had grown.

Neither Fred nor Hermione had any plans of bursting the thin bubble of naivety and innocence however. As much as both of them thought the students should be aware, they were attempting to change history as little as possible. And these children should get as much of a childhood as they could.

Because Hermione and Fred sure as hell didn't get much of one.

. . .

Lily watched the Marauders carefully. It was dinner time, and the four were just as boisterous as usual, but there was an undercurrent of seriousness to them recently. She didn't quite know what to make of it. On one hand, she was relieved to see that they were finally maturing because she was tired of practically babysitting them.

But on the other, she had always sort of seen them as Peter Pan boys: full of fun and laughter and never wanting to grow up. She'd never let them see, but she had enjoyed quite a few of their pranks they'd pulled over the years. And the secret part of her that adored them for making her laugh abhorred the thought of them losing their spark.

She couldn't help but blame Hermione.

Not Fred. From what she could see, the still-gaunt looking boy-man encouraged and even assisted in the pranking. But ever since The Forest Incident, where Hermione had reportedly taken down several centaurs by herself, the boys' attention had zeroed in on the girl. They laughed and joked just as much as ever, but they always seemed to have one eye on Hermione.

Lily couldn't tell if they were trying to unravel the mystery that was their teacher, if they were looking out for her, or if they were all slowly falling in the love with the cold girl.

She didn't realize how far off she had allowed her mind to wander until a sharp elbow caught her in the ribs. She scowled at Nan. "What the-"

Marlene nodded from across the table. "Potter's on his way over. Thought he finally decided to leave you alone?"

Lily refused to turn around. She gently rubbed her side. "How am I supposed to know what goes on in that kid's head?" she muttered darkly. She was about to say something more when a voice cleared awkwardly behind her. She looked over her shoulder.

"Can I help you, Potter?"

He shoved his hands in his pockets and met her annoyed gaze calmly. "Can I talk to you privately for a minute, Evans?"

She shrugged. "I'm sure it can wait till after dinner," she replied as she faced forward again. She let out a strangled, pained grunt as Marlene's foot came in contact with her shin. She glared at her friend. Marlene raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Evans, you've been done with dinner for the last fifteen minutes," James said. He grinned at Marlene. "And don't use the excuse that you want to chat with your friends because you've said hardly a word the entire meal."

Lily's eyes widened. "Fine," she muttered. She shoved herself off the bench and stood with her arms crossed. "What do you want?"

"Not here," he murmured and led her out of the Great Hall.

She followed quietly until he stopped in a little alcove. "What do you want, Potter?"

"Will you sit with me at the All Hallow's Feast?"

She stared at him for a good thirty seconds. He kept his eyes fixed firmly on hers as she gaped at him.

"You dragged me out here just to hit on me again?" she finally managed to get out. She snorted in disbelief.

He shook his head. "No, I 'dragged' you out here to ask if you wanted to sit with me during the feast. I didn't want you to reject me without thought because that's what you've always done." He looked up and over her head and sighed lightly before continuing.

"Look, I'm just asking if you want to hang out during the feast. You can say no. I'm not going to pressure you into going with me by throwing myself into dramatics because you've dismissed me yet again."

She eyed him closely. "Why?"

He shoved his hands even deeper in his pockets and grinned. "Because why not? Why shouldn't I ask a pretty girl to sit with me during a fancy party?"

Lily fought down a slight blush. That was the first time he ever called her pretty. Oh, he often waxed poetic about how her beauty, but she never believed him until then that he actually did think she was attractive. For once, he sounded honest and she didn't know what to do with it. Then she remembered her thoughts from earlier.

"What about Miss Greene?"

A genuinely perplexed look flitted across his face. "What?" he asked eloquently.

She kept her arms crossed and said, "I've noticed you watching her lately. Why don't you ask her?"

James pursed his lips together tightly and an understanding light came into his eyes. "Because I don't want to. Besides, haven't you noticed how close Hermione and Fred are? They may be our ages but they've seen shit- sorry, um, really intense stuff. She's someone I respect. But she's not someone I want to spend an entire evening with when I want to have fun."

Lily's eyes narrowed. "Fun, huh? And what kind of _fun_ do you think we'll be having, James Potter?"

"Good conversation, excellent food, and front row seats to pranking entertainment brought to you by yours truly and company," he answered immediately.

"Fine."

"Fine?"

"Fine I'll sit with you." She turned and walked away, heading towards the Gryffindor Tower.

"Wait- really?"

"Yes." She whirled around. He was grinning ear to ear. "Don't read too much into it."

"Read too much into- I'm not reading too much into it. Nope, I'm not reading anything into it at all. I would never read too much into anything ever-"

"Potter. Shut up."

"Shutting up now." He clamped his mouth shut for emphasis and then smiled at her again. "I'll see you later, Evans."

"Mm-hm," she hummed as she watched him bounce away. Before he rounded a corner and disappeared, he stopped and collected himself, straightened his shoulders and calmly continued on his way.

She ran a hand through her hair. What had she just agreed to?


	16. Chapter 16: One Hell of a Night

Hermione crept through the woods. Branches whispered against her clothing as she steadily made her way to meet Magorian. She didn't really understand why all of these meetings had to take place at night. Surely there was a more convenient and less cliché time to gather to exchange covert information.

The centaur had sent a message saying he needed to meet. Fred wasn't too pleased when he found out that she was meeting the clan leader alone. Hermione logically pointed out that they had both reached their majority forever ago and they weren't going to push their luck by both of them showing up when it only took one to receive a message. Fred still wasn't pleased, but refused to argue with her.

From her years spent in the woods running from their favorite Dark Lord, she was not the least bit hesitant finding her way through the Forest. She easily found her way through the thick vegetation, not a single noise coming from her steps. She brushed yet another cobweb to the left, hanging vines to the right. Carefully removed some brambles from her muggle jeans. Avoided stepping in several animal ground dwellings.

She looked up from the most recent bushes she had made her way through and her eyes suddenly weren't quite focused. She paused and closed her eyes for a brief moment. When she opened them again, her vision still felt distorted.

She glanced around and realized she was in a very different set of woods than what she had just entered. Her chest tightened. Her breaths came in heaving gasps.

Rushing footsteps. Chilly air. She could hear their taunting, their crude calling. They were getting closer. She had to run. As she flew through the forest, branches and brambles catching her arms and tearing her face, she knew something was off. She was missing something, forgetting. What was she forgetting?

Harry.

Where was Harry? She stopped and looking frantically around. How the hell did she lose Harry?

She began to run back but the voices were closer, their footsteps louder. She ducked behind trees, trying to find them before they found her. Her joints flared in slight pain at the abrupt tension that coiled through her body. Her skin itched, her scars ached.

Her scars. She paused for a moment.

She took a deep breath and held it. As she slowly let it out, she rolled up her sleeves. Her arms weren't marked. She shouldn't have scars. She tapped her wand to her wrist.

"Finite incantatum."

Slowly, dark purple and light red marks appeared. Thin white lines here and there between larger, more grotesque, disfigurements. She had scars. She wasn't in the forest running from Death Eaters. She'd already been there. Already been captured.

She'd already failed Harry.

She fell against the tree she was hiding behind. The Forest of Dean faded away, and the Forbidden Forest came slowing back into focus. Footsteps and voices slunk away, and normal night noises emerged. As she slunk to the ground, her vision grew blurry. It took her a few moments to realize that she was crying. She sat there with her sleeves bunched at her elbows, wand lying listlessly in her hand, feet sprawled out before her, and she whispered to herself four little words.

"Fred said we won. Fred said we won. Fred said we won."

She whispered it till she almost convinced herself to believe it. Fred said it, so it must be true. In world where she felt like she didn't know which was up or down any more, she would hold onto the fact that Fred said it. Fred Weasley did not lie to Hermione Granger.

A twig snapped in front of her and before she even fully realized who was there, her wand was up and she was spitting out shield charms.

Magorian carefully made his way before her. Silently they regarded each other. He saw the way her body trembled and heard the way her breath rattled in her chest. He could almost smell the fear oozing out of her. But her wand did not shake and her eyes, though more dull than before, did not shy away from his gaze.

He kept a few feet away from her barrier. No need to make her feel more threatened. He didn't quite understand what could have happened to put that look on her face. Especially since she had just recently brutally destroyed several of his herd.

He watched in slight fascination and not a little curiosity as she stumbled to her feet, using the tree for support. Her eyes were suddenly bright and alert, the rest of her face impassive. There was no sign of emotion, no way to tell she had been a broken mess moments before. Except for the tear tracks left on her cheeks. Those were hard to miss.

"Winter Solstice."

She cocked her head slightly but said nothing, waiting for him to go on.

"You have to use your time spells on the day of the Solstice in order for you to return to where you belong. The stars have said nothing more than that."

"And if we miss the solstice?" her voice was thick and hoarse and cracked.

"Then the Spring Equinox. And if not that, then the Summer Solstice. Or the Autumn Equinox."

She regarded him silently. "What do I owe you?"

"Stay out of my forest."

She let out a bitter yip that could have been a laugh. "If I never step foot in a forest that will be too soon for me. You have a deal."

She turned and ran for all she was worth. She wasn't staying another second in the thrice damned forest.

. . .

Growling could be heard right behind her as she sprinted through the trees. A dark shape appeared on her right side, jaws chopping as it leaped towards her. She ducked and managed to get a tree between them just before she became a snack. She dodged another attack and glanced up at the barely seen sky.

"You have got to be kidding me!" she grumbled. Of course it would be a full moon. And of course she would run into her lovely werewolf student.

She was about to shoot him with a stunning spell when a stag and a large black dog appeared. The stag took up a protective stance in front of her as the dog tried to shepherd the werewolf away from her. Unfortunately the wolf was having none of it and refused to be guided.

The stag rejoined the efforts of keeping him from Hermione, and she took off. She chose the most difficult path for him to follow. She leapt over fallen trees and rushed through heavily thorn covered areas. However, no matter how quickly she ran, he was always half a step away. Somehow, he was managing to keep her from actually leaving the woods.

At one point he almost managed to bite her. She had leapt over a log just as he sprang at her. She reached up and grabbed a vine. Barely managing to escape the wolf jaws she desperately swung herself up into the tree. She thanked every god she could think of for allowing her to grab a vine that was sturdy enough to hold her.

She stopped her thanks halfway when she realized she probably weighed a lot less that she assumed and started cursing them all for her unwanted dietary habits.

A howl rang out in the darkness. She listened closely but the woods had fallen silent at sound. She knew he was still down there stalking her. She was very abruptly done with the evening. She was annoyed, tired, and quite frankly did not have time to deal with all this werewolf shit. She hopped down.

Immediately he sprung from the bushes, his two guardians close behind. She whipped out her wand and threw three quick stinging hexes right into their faces. While the wolf was distracted, she zapped him with a full body bind.

His growl didn't stop her from leaving but she did glare over her shoulder. "Piss off," she growled back.

She fucking hated forests.

. . .

She finally managed to get back to her rooms at quarter to six. Seeing no point in even trying to sleep, she grumpily entered the common room. Fred was snoozing on the sofa, a book dangling from his fingertips. Her face softened. He had been waiting for her it seemed.

She reached out and gently shook him. "Fred, I'm back."

He snapped awake and sat up immediately, wand at her throat. She stayed perfectly still and calmly waited for him to recognize her.

"Hermione?"

"Yeah, hi."

"Hi." His eyes studied her face. "You've got new scratches."

"Yeah, I ran into our resident werewolf."

He frowned. "You decided that the perfect time to meet up with a centaur that wants you dead was during a full moon when a werewolf was in the vicinity?"

She scowled. "Shut up. You forgot that it was a full moon till just now."

"Yeah, but I didn't go out hunting wisdom from centaurs during one."

"Do you want to hear what the wise centaur told me or do you wanna whine about my life choices some more?"

"I'm not done whining, but go ahead and tell me how we're supposed to get home."

"Winter Solstice. Spring Equinox. Summer Solstice. Autumn Equinox."

"What?"

She stood up and paced in front of him. "He said that we have to perform out time spell during one of those times in order to go back."

Fred flopped back down. "Do we know the time spell?"

"Nope."

"Well that is just bloody fantastic." She stopped pacing and sighed tiredly.

"I'll hit the books after the Halloween nonsense settles down. Right now though, I'm going to take a shower and then we can go get breakfast." She headed for her room.

He snorted but didn't bother to sit up. "Good idea. You need to eat more anyway."

"You're the last person that can tell me that!" she called from the bathroom.

"I think you mean I'm the only person!" he yelled back.


End file.
